The Lonely Hearts Club
by BouncingKappa
Summary: Muggle-born Lydia Beckett has done her best to ignore Sirius Black and his friends for nearly five years. Torn between the muggle and magical worlds, she must decide where she belongs and whether to fight in a war she never wanted to be a part of, all while struggling with her feelings for Sirius. Set against the vivid backdrop of the 1970's, Lydia planned for a lot, just not love.
1. Beginnings

**A/N: So, I'm nervous. The Sirius/OC story has been done literally thousands of times. I'm hoping this is a fresh-ish spin on this from a character perspective. In this story I plan to explore not only the characters, romance, and the first wizarding war but also the struggle of a muggle-born between the muggle and magical world, especially in a time period where the world was in turmoil.**

 **I hope you like Lydia – I'm doing my best to keep her out of a few different commonly seen situations! All of the chapters will be named after popular songs from the time period!**

 **Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter. God, I wish I did…student loans are the worst.**

 **The Lonely Hearts Club**

 **Prologue - Beginnings**

Lydia brushed her fingers over the well-worn canvas of her bag. The rough fabric was threadbare in a couple of places, forcing Lydia to sew new patches over the holes. The latest additions built upon her already impressive collection of paraphernalia collected over the past few years. Both her mother and father offered to replace her bag with a new leather bag, one that wouldn't threaten to fall apart on her within the first two weeks of school. Lydia flat-out refused, though she recognized the inconvenience of having a broken school bag and waiting for a new one. She'd carried her canvas bag to school every day for the last two years and it was one of the few pieces of home she was carrying with her.

She rubbed her thumb over the stitching of a square pink patch surrounded by a royal blue border. The letters spelling love were stacked on each other, sewn over a hole right next to a patch of a hand holding up the peace sign and filled in with the Union Jack. Lydia was often asked about the patches on her bag and whether she was even old enough to understand the politics behind the war in Vietnam. What did her age matter, she'd retort calmly, especially when the war was bound to leave behind a mess her generation would inherit. She'd usually get a chuckle or a raised eyebrow before she continued on her merry way.

Lydia Cady Beckett was used to raised eyebrows. As the daughter of two outspoken Cambridge professors, she'd long grown accustomed to the furtive judgment and occasional outright shock. A young, impressionable girl being raised on the realities and politics of the war? Taken to protests and exposed to rhetoric that would make a nun cry? Lydia had seen and heard it all before.

Yet, she wondered just how many eyebrows she'd raise at her new school. Were there many students with similar backgrounds? For her entire life, Lydia's parents taught her to be herself and she wouldn't have a problem making friends. This strategy worked alright as long as Lydia stuck to her more innocuous interests: field hockey, riding her bicycle with her friends, and taking quizzes out of magazine with her friends.

But after Professor Minerva McGonagall's visit to her house on Lydia's eleventh birthday last April, Lydia got the impression that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry didn't offer much in the way of field hockey and bicycles. For probably the thirteenth time since she climbed into the backseat of her father's car, Lydia sighed. Her mother, Harriet, turned around to look at her.

"Everything alright?" She asked.

Lydia nodded and turned her gaze down to the patches on her bag. "I'm fine," she said.

Both Lydia and her mother knew that she was lying, but there was no point in bringing it up. There was nothing anyone could do now except go through with the plan, no matter how unbelievable it was.

"We'll be there in about fifteen minutes."

Lydia's palms were clammy and she felt hot. Fifteen minutes was too soon! Especially when she wasn't sure this was what she wanted to do. This time a year ago if someone told Lydia that she was a witch, she probably would have laughed them out of the room. It took Professor McGonagall visiting the Beckett house and performing some actual magic with her wand to convince Lydia that this wasn't a joke. She still wasn't totally sure until a school representative had taken Lydia and her parents to a place called Diagon Alley to get her textbooks, robes, potions ingredients, cauldron, and wand. Even then, Lydia hadn't opened a single of her books, too overwhelmed with the truth and all of the changes that came with it.

"It's going to be great," said her father, ever the optimist. "Once you get there you'll see. You're going to be with a whole bunch of kids just like you."

Lydia couldn't see her father's eyes from behind his dark wayfarer sunglasses, but she knew they were shining with guilt. _Kids just like you_. There was a phrase Lydia had come to hate with a passion. The announcement of Lydia's magical abilities became less shocking and more reasonable the more everyone in the Beckett house mulled it over. Professor McGonagall, in her pitch, asked Lydia if anything strange and unexplainable ever happened to her. The knowing look between her parents had all but confirmed this.

She would be with kids just like her. Maybe some of those kids had also managed to turn Cecily Ward's hair and skin bright green after she not-so-accidentally dumped green paint all over Lydia during art. Perhaps other kids managed to accidentally set Mrs. Ledbetter's desk on fire after she announced a pop quiz on the multiplication tables after Lydia hadn't studied? Lydia supposed that the kids just like her experienced similar things, but every time her father said it, he seemed to be confirming his own belief that Lydia had never quite fit into this world.

Lydia slumped deeper into her seat, further disheartened by that thought. "You're right," she said slowly. "I'm sure it'll be great."

"That's the spirit," he said encouragingly.

Absently, Lydia fiddled with a lock of her champagne blonde hair. Her thirteen-year old sister, Rachel, had gone to great lengths that morning to help Lydia iron it perfectly straight. Apparently good impressions didn't start with a firm handshake and eye contact, they started with a nice appearance. According to Rachel, Lydia's hair was her one beauty and helped detract from the tortoise shell glasses she wore that obscured her bright grey eyes.

"You'll send me the newspaper?" Lydia asked, trying to find a bright spot.

"We've already taken out a second subscription," said her mother, perking up at Lydia's sudden interest in talking "We'll send it every day along with letters and treats from home."

The prospect of staying in touch with home and her mother's peanut butter cookies brightened Lydia's spirits considerably. Though her uplifted mood only lasted long enough for her father to park and unload her school trunk onto a trolley. Lydia got out of the car and took one last look at what she could see of the city.

"Come along, Lydia," said her father as he started pushing her trolley along. Lydia jogged a few steps to catch up with her parents and they entered the train station in pensive silence.

X X X

Saying goodbye to her parents had been an odd affair. Lydia's parents didn't trust that they could get through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. Although she felt quite the opposite, Lydia put on her best air of false confidence and assured them that she could go on by herself. They'd all done their best to avoid tears and failed miserably. By the time Lydia managed to hug both of her parents three times each and given repeated assurances to write as soon as possible, she went through the barrier with her trunk and cage bearing her brand new owl, Gail.

Immediately, she wished her parents had come with her, just so they could see the magnificent scarlet steam engine. Platform 9 ¾ was packed to the gills with families and young people of all ages. Lydia rolled her trolley forward slowly, mouth agape in amazement. Some older students were already in their school robes, all knotted together with their friends celebrating reunions. Several kids walked by carrying broomsticks over their shoulders. Finding a way onto the train seemed impossible, but Lydia pushed her way forward so she didn't block up the entrance for anyone else.

Feeling miniscule and invisible, it took her several minutes before she managed to find an open door and started to force her trunk onto the train. But the trunk was enormous and combined with Gail's cage, Lydia found herself struggling when two pairs of hands shot out and began to heave from aboard the train.

"Here!" Said a small voice above her. "Ready and push!"

Lydia threw her shoulder against the trunk and with the combined help, it slid easily aboard. Panting, Lydia looked up to see two girls her age in the doorway. One of the girls had dishwater brown hair, but she smiled brightly at her and gestured to Gail's cage. "I'll take it," she said.

"Thank you," said Lydia gratefully and she passed Gail up.

The other girl held out her hand for Lydia and helped her aboard. "Getting those trunks on is absolute murder," she complained with a sunny smile. "You'd think there would be more attendants to help, but what can you do. Are you a first year, too?"

"Yeah," said Lydia, slightly dizzy from the girl's rapid speech. She nodded and then jerked her thumb towards the girl holding Gail's cage.

"Us too. I'm Marlene McKinnon, that's Emmeline Vance."

"Lydia Beckett," she said and shook Marlene's hand when she offered it.

"We just got a compartment a little ways down, want to join us?" Emmeline asked.

"That'd be great, thanks," said Lydia unable to find any other words to voice the wave of relief that instantly washed over her. Without another word, Marlene took one end of Lydia's trunk and Lydia the other. The girls carried her trunk, following Emmeline down to the empty compartment. Once they got her stuff put away, all three flopped down onto the seats, panting all over again.

"Merlin's beard I can't wait till we can do magic legally. Then I can just put a weightless charm on those trunks and we can practically skip on board with them," said Marlene. Her rich chocolate brown hair was pulled into a shining braid that fell down one of her shoulders.

Emmeline nodded and pulled up her knees to sit cross-legged on the shining red cushion. "Either that or use a shrinking charm. I begged mum to do that so travelling would be easier but you know her, she thinks magic shouldn't be used to just to make life easier."

Marlene rolled her eyes and Lydia wished she wasn't sitting there feeling more and more stupid by the second. The girls could have been speaking a different language for all Lydia knew about magic. She looked down at her knees, hands clutching onto her patched canvas bag. "You're muggle-born, then?"

It took Lydia a second to realize Marlene's question was directed at her. "Muggle-born?" She echoed.

"Yeah. You know, your parents aren't a witch and wizard?"

"Oh! Right," said Lydia, her face growing hot. "Yes, I'm muggle-born."

Both Emmeline and Marlene sat up a little straighter. "Fascinating," said Emmeline somewhat tactlessly. "So you've gone your whole life without magic? How did you all get by? What do your parents do?"

"We don't care of course," said Marlene hastily and kindly. "Magic is magic in our books. Doesn't matter if your dad was the minister of magic or takes out rubbish bins. We just haven't spent much time in the muggle world."

 _Kids just like you_ , thought Lydia with a snort. Yeah right, dad, she thought and rubbed the back of her neck. "We get on just fine, you could go your whole life and never know about magic, I guess. My parents are professors," she said.

"Teachers?" Marlene and Emmeline said together. This fact, apparently, more than Lydia's muggle-born status was far more interesting. The girls became so engrossed in what it was like to have teachers as parents that none of them noticed the train had started to move fifteen minutes later.

Once the initial shock of Lydia's background wore off, she found that she rather liked Emmeline and Marlene. They took it upon themselves to tell Lydia as much as they could about Hogwarts, about the school houses, the sorting, the lessons, and other tidbits they'd gleaned over the course of their lives. Lydia quickly deduced that Emmeline was somewhat shy and far less outspoken than brazen and funny Marlene. The two girls had grown up in the same tiny wizard neighborhood, living only two houses apart their whole lives. Lydia might have found this intimidating if both girls weren't so nice and eager to add another friend to their ranks.

"So anyway, my older sister is in her sixth year and she told me to watch out for the caretaker, Filch. I guess he's really mean and likes to give students detention when he's in a bad mood," said Emmeline. Lydia was just about to ask about detentions when the door slid open.

A girl with auburn hair stood in the doorway. At first, all Lydia took in were the girl's bright green eyes and she nearly missed the skinny, small boy who stood half-hidden behind her. His dark eyes peered out from beneath slightly hooded brows and his nose was too large for his face, framed by two greasy curtains of black hair.

"Here looks nice," said the girl in a small undertone to the boy.

"No," said the boy just loud enough that all three girls could hear. "Let's just go find an empty compartment."

Marlene and Lydia both sat up a little straighter. "There's plenty of room," said Marlene.

"Yeah, you're welcome to join," said Lydia. "I'm Lydia, that's Emmeline, and that's Marlene," she pointed to her new friends and looked to Emmeline to speak up.

"I'm Lily Evans, this is Severus Snape," she said and stood to the side so all three girls got a better look at the boy. Already dressed in his school robes, Lydia was unfortunately reminded of an overlarge, but rather malnourished bat. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Marlene's mouth fall open a fraction, but she ignored it, choosing to smile instead at Lily.

"Come in," she said.

It was then that Severus Snape's eyes came to rest on Lydia's bag. Already Marlene and Emmeline had expressed interest in the unusual patches that were a dead giveaway as to Lydia's upbringing. His lips turned down in a deeper scowl and he narrowed his gaze. Just as Lily started to walk inside he grabbed her wrist.

"No, I don't want to go in there," he said, again just loud enough for the girls to hear.

Lydia looked down at her bag, then back up at Severus, her mouth falling open in surprise. Marlene had noticed it, too. "If you have a problem with our new friend, maybe you should leave," she said coolly.

A surge of affection sprang up in Lydia's heart for Marlene, though she could hardly understand why. Lily started to speak. "Oh no, it's no trouble! You see I'm," but she never got to finish her sentence. Severus Snape shot another dirty look at the bag, then at Marlene before he stalked away, bat-like cloak flapping behind him.

Lily flushed beet red and stared at her feet, completely mortified. "I'm sorry," she said and then took off after her friend.

"What was that all about?" Lydia asked slowly, turning her gaze to Marlene and Emmeline who were both looking at her bag.

"He's probably one of those pureblood snobs," said Marlene in a dark voice. They were interrupted again, this time by the trolley.

Lydia's astonished expression at the different types of sweets caused her new friends to purchase a small selection of their favorites and the unusual run-in was promptly forgotten as they took turns blindly picking Bertie Bott's Beans and betting which if their chocolate frogs could leap the highest. By the time Lydia remembered to ask about the boy, they were all having such a good time that she didn't want to bring it up.

They were once more interrupted as the door slid open.

"McKinnon! Vance!" A buoyant boy's voice rang through the compartment! "I'd forgotten the two of you would be skulking around this train, too!"

Emmeline and Marlene both stiffened, intense expressions of dislike coming over their faces. "Well, if it isn't James Potter," said Marlene. "I wish I'd forgotten you were going to be here, shame you didn't get hit by a muggle taxi on the way in."

James Potter stood in the doorway, grinning recklessly from beneath a mop of messy jet-black hair. His round glasses were just slightly askew. "I'm disappointed you weren't there to try and push me into the street. Are you going to introduce me to your friend? Or am I going to have to do it myself?"

Emmeline rolled her eyes and gestured to Lydia. "James, this is Lydia Beckett. Lydia, this is James Potter."

"Otherwise known as the world's biggest prat," added Marlene before she stuck her tongue out at James who merely waggled his eyebrows humorously back.

"Nice to meet you?" Said Lydia, unsure. It was obvious there was a history between the three of them that Lydia didn't know.

"Ignore them," said Emmeline in a mock conspiratorial voice. "Our families have all known each other for ages and James has spent the better part of every gathering trying to play pranks on us. Last time we were all together he managed to slip an exploding stink pellet in Marlene's soup."

"And it took two weeks for the smell to go away," said Marlene through gritted teeth.

James threw back his head and laughed before clapping his hand on the shoulder of the boy next to him, who was also laughing. "Lydia Beckett, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. This here is Sirius Black, also a first year."

The temperature of the compartment dropped to somewhere below freezing. Both Marlene and Emmeline recoiled slightly at the name and Lydia looked to the boy to try and figure out why. Even at eleven years old, Sirius Black was exceptionally handsome. His grey eyes scanned the room while his lips turned downward slightly.

"Don't everyone introduce themselves at once," he said in a light voice, shaking his black hair from his face. "I promise I don't bite."

"That's Marlene McKinnon and Emmeline Vance," said James pointing to each girl in turn. "Lydia Beckett, we've just met."

Sirius' grey eyes fell on Lydia and he took in her glasses, a small smirk tugging at his lips. He then noticed her bag, examining the various patches. "Nice to meet you all," he said nodding his head to him.

"Is this a joke?" Marlene asked bluntly. "Potter, you're hanging around a Black?"

"Not a joke," assured Sirius with a grin as James threw an arm around Sirius and pretended to let his knees give so he dangled from Sirius. "James is indeed hanging around me."

Emmeline's eyebrows rose so high they nearly disappeared beneath her bangs. "Okay," she said slowly.

Lydia watched the entire interaction with open fascination. "I think in time you'll come to see I'm less Black than my family name suggests," said Sirius cryptically.

James ambled into the compartment and unceremoniously took the box of jelly beans, scooping up a handful. He held them out to Sirius who took a few without looking, popping the whole lot into his mouth. If he got a single bad flavor, the boy didn't show it, his face remained perfectly smooth.

Emmeline and Marlene both shifted uncomfortably in their seats but were saved from any further small talk when a prefect appeared, telling them to change into their school robes.

"And to think, you've just been robbed of my delightful conversational skills," said James with a fake sigh. He gestured to Sirius. "C'mon, we should probably leave before Marlene starts throwing things at us."

Sirius grinned. "Surely not, Miss McKinnon," he teased.

"It wouldn't be the first time," snapped Marlene, returning her glare to James.

"Nor the last, I'm sure," said James amicably. The two boys turned to leave and Sirius paused in the door, looking pointedly at Lydia.

"Nice bag," he said, then turned and left, sliding the door shut behind him.

Marlene and Emmeline stared at each other. "Did I miss something? What's so wrong with Sirius Black? Do you guys know him too?" Lydia asked.

"Not exactly," said Marlene as she stood to dig her robes out of her trunk. The other girls followed suit.

"The Blacks are a really old wizard family and they don't have a good reputation," explained Emmeline. "There's a whole lot more to it, but just trust us, seeing a Black hanging around James Potter is a big deal. I wouldn't be surprised if half the train is talking about it."

Lydia pushed her head through her robes and pulled her long hair out scowling as the static caused it to stand out. Her head was so full of who knew who and where who came from that her head was positively spinning. "I feel so stupid," she admitted at last. "You guys have this huge advantage because you know everyone."

"You'll be fine!" Cried Emmeline.

"Stick with us and we'll make sure you figure it all out. Emme can even draw a chart for you," said Marlene teasingly to Emmeline. "She loves that kind of stuff."

Fifteen minutes later, the train skated to a halt at the station. Lydia followed her new friends, deep in thought about all of the thing she'd learned in such a short time. All of the hesitation and fear she'd felt only that morning melted away as the three girls walked together, following an enormous man who was corralling the first years. Emmeline took Lydia's hand so she could keep her balance as they slipped and slid on the dark trail, ending at a fleet of boats waiting for the first years. Lydia, Marlene, and Emmeline all crowded into a boat, joined by a short, round-faced boy who never introduced himself. A few boats over she sat James Potter and Sirius Black cackling in laughter as they joined two other boys.

The boats sailed across the water with no help from any oars, much to Lydia's surprise. Just as Lydia wondered what they were doing, the fleet rounded a bend and her jaw dropped. A magnificent castle stood high above the water. Lights glittered through the small windows like hundred jewels. Lydia tried to take in all of the towers and turrets, drinking in the magnificence that was to be her new home.

"There's a sight you don't see every day," whispered Marlene in similar awe.

Lydia could only nod, too awestruck to speak.

 **A/N: So there's the prologue! The first chapter features a time-jump. This story will take place starting right after Christmas break in 5** **th** **year.**

 **Anyway, let me know what you think! I'm hoping to get the next chapter finished and up soon! Much love – Kappa.**


	2. Right Back Where We Started From

**A/N: I didn't think I'd actually get a chapter finished so soon, but here we are! This chapter is another bit of setup. I think there will be a few bumps early in the road while I try to work out all the characters etc., so stick with me! I do a ton of research during the writing process, and I use HP-Lexicon for almost all things HP! Also – apologies for any typos, I'm writing beta-free currently.**

 **Thanks so much for the reviews, favorites, and follows! I tend to PM to reviewers directly, but haven't had a chance to do that with the prologue, but I'll be starting here! I love hearing your feedback!**

 **Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter. If I did then there would definitely be Marauder prequel books!**

 **The Lonely Hearts Club**

 **Chapter 1 – Right Back Where we Started From**

 **January 10, 1976**

Snow was coming down so heavily, Lydia Beckett could hardly see the enormous doors at the front of the castle. From her vantage point inside one of the school's carriages the short jaunt up to the doors looked treacherous. Bundled in her heavy cloak, scarf, gloves, and earmuffs, Lydia already missed the marginally warmer temperatures in Cambridge, at least it hadn't been dumping buckets of snow over there.

"What do you reckon?" Asked Frank Longbottom who sat inside the carriage with Lydia and his girlfriend, Alice Millner.

Lydia made a face. "I suppose we bite the bullet and make a mad dash for it," said Lydia.

"Bite the bullet?" Alice asked, confusion lacing her voice.

Shaking her head, Lydia gave her friends an apologetic smile. "Muggle saying, sorry," she said and rubbed her gloved hands together. "It means we should just go for it."

The pair nodded. Alice tightened her red and gold scarf. "Well, let's get it over with then," she agreed.

Frank raked his fingers through his pale brown hair and slid across the black leather bench to open up the door. As soon as he cracked it open a gust of frigid air swept into the previously quite warm carriage, setting Lydia's teeth chattering. "I hate being cold," she grumbled.

"I don't think many people fancy it," said Alice and she followed Frank out into the blizzard. Lydia swallowed, but followed suit and together the three of them bent their heads down and forced themselves straight into the gusts of wind, trudging through the thick snow. They were practically walking sideways before the castle walls finally blocked the wind and gave them respite from the worst of the weather. Teeth chattering, Lydia managed to get all the way up the stairs without slipping until she reached for one of the large handles. Her foot caught a slick puddle and went out from beneath her.

"Easy there, Lyd!" Said Frank as he and Alice caught her by the arms just in the nick of time.

"I swear, you'd fall down in the middle of an empty field," said Alice, exasperated.

Lydia shrugged. "It's a gift," she said flippantly, earning the chuckles of her friends. Frank opened up one of the doors and ushered the girls inside. One of the teachers had cast a warming charm over the cavernous entrance hall. Lydia gratefully peeled off her earmuffs and gloves, shoving them in the pockets of her cloak.

"Thank heavens, what an utter nightmare getting back," said Alice.

A few students milled through the entrance hall. Lydia noted with some amusement that several of her classmates held small wrapped gifts or some other token for their other half, as if going a few weeks without seeing each other was the worst thing imaginable. She smiled and said hello to a few friendly acquaintances or her actual friends while she made her way into the Great Hall to get a cup of hot chocolate before returning to the Gryffindor tower.

Lydia hated the snow, but even she had to admit the ceiling looked pretty spectacular during a blizzard. The house tables were sparsely populated, which suited Lydia perfectly fine while she walked down the length of the Gryffindor table looking for the large silver pot that held hot chocolate, the perfect beverage for a day like this. During her first year, Lydia begged her mum to send packets of hot chocolate for her to make herself, much to the amazement and amusement of her friends. Now she'd gotten so spoiled on the school's version she only drank the dry packet version when she was home for the Christmas holidays.

"I was surprised that Marlene and Emmeline weren't on the train," said Alice as she followed Lydia in.

Looking over her shoulder, Lydia scowled. "What happened to Frank?"

"Quidditch team meeting," said Alice, speaking of Frank's position as a chaser on the Hufflepuff quidditch team. "Besides, you're much better company."

Lydia arched an eyebrow. "Last time I checked, I'm not the one snogging you. So I sincerely doubt I'm better company."

Alice waggled her eyebrows in a teasingly seductive manner. "Fine, you're the next best person I could find while my boyfriend is otherwise occupied."

Finally, Lydia located the silver hot chocolate pot and she reached for two clean cups. "I'm pretty sure you just said that you'll ditch me once better company rolls along, so somehow I don't think that's any better," joked Lydia while she poured.

"I like to keep my options open," said Alice with a laugh. "Come on, I bet our trunks are upstairs now."

The two girls fell into amicable silence as they walked the familiar path to the Gryffindor common room. After four and a half years at Hogwarts, Lydia knew the hallways like the back of her hand, including the fasted routes to the her common room. It was quiet, even for a Saturday afternoon and Lydia supposed that most of the students were in their common rooms or in the library, frantically finishing the homework they'd been assigned over the term. Already Lydia dreaded getting back to some of her classes, mainly potions and transfiguration.

"So where are Emmeline and Marlene? I didn't see them on the train," said Alice cheerfully.

"Their parents all apparently went on some nice trip and the girls decided to stay here. I invited them to my place to celebrate, but I think the prospect of several weeks in the muggle world was a bit much for them," said Lydia. "I expect that one or the both of them will find me eventually."

Alice shoved her hands in the pockets of her red pants. "Having to put their muggle studies classes to practical use? God forbid!"

Lydia laughed. "Don't kid yourself, Alice. The only reason those two haven't failed is because their best friend happens to know how to actually use a washing machine and does so every Christmas and ever summer."

Alice laughed, the corners of her hazel eyes crinkling. Alice Millner was a year above Lydia, and had spent the better part of Lydia's first year trying, and mostly failing, to tutor Lydia in transfiguration. Although her test scores remained nothing short of an unmitigated disaster, both girls considered the lessons beneficial as they gained a good friendship out of it. Lydia and Emmeline also liked to take credit for setting up Alice with her now boyfriend Frank Longbottom, a Hufflepuff sixth year who played quidditch with Emmeline.

The two girls continued their trek to the Gryffindor tower and clambered through the portrait hole into the cozy common room. Almost as soon as Lydia appeared in full view of the common room a voice shouted to her from the squashy couch in front of the fire.

"Lydia! You're back!" Marlene McKinnon shrieked with delight, rushing over to greet her friend. Lydia had to hold her hot chocolate out as a warning to keep Marlene from attacking her with a bear hug and spilling the hot liquid all over the place. Stopping just short of the cup, Marlene grinned apologetically shaking her winged bangs from her eyes. "How was your Christmas? Did you get my present? I wasn't sure that you'd get it, my mum said she triple checked our address on the package at the post office and the man at the counter thought she was absolutely mental. Emme said I should have just gone with something easier, but I thought you'd get a kick out of getting my present via muggle post."

Alice patted Lydia's shoulder before escaping Marlene's verbal onslaught, slipping away to greet her fellow sixth-year friends. Lydia held up a hand as Marlene continued to speak at break-neck speed, effectively cutting the brunette off.

"Breathe, Marlene," she said and began circling her hands to signal Marlene to take several deep breaths. "My Christmas was lovely, thanks for asking. I did get your present and I loved it, did you really send your mum into a muggle bookshop to buy those novels? Also, I'm assuming the pet rock was a joke?"

Marlene grinned widely at her. "No," she said pointedly. "I sent one to Emmeline too and have one myself. If you didn't bring yours and if you haven't named it I'll be mortally disappointed."

Lydia looped her arm through Marlene's and they started up the stairs to the fifth year girl's dormitory. "I named him Paul after Paul McCartney and he has a very dignified place at the top of my my trunk."

The girls dissolved into a bout of giggles, talking about what Emmeline's reaction likely was upon opening her Christmas present only to find a brown cardboard box that contained her pet rock. The joke started sometime during the last term when Lydia's sister Rachel sent a letter complaining that her then-boyfriend thought that the toy fad was a perfect gift for their six-month anniversary. Marlene and Emmeline had been practically rolling on the floor at the notion that muggles actually kept pet rocks despite Lydia's firm insistence that only nutters would do something so ridiculous. But, the joke stuck, and Lydia wasn't surprised in the least when she opened her Christmas present from Marlene that included a couple of excellent novels and the rock, Paul.

Lydia and Marlene were still laughing when they burst through the door to the dormitory, startling the room's lone occupant. Lily Evans had been unpacking her trunk when the door opened. She straightened immediately, as if someone shoved a metal rod up the back of her jumper. Lydia and Marlene halted and their laughter died.

"Hi, Lily," said Lydia awkwardly as she recovered from the initial shock and carried on into the room.

"Hey," said Marlene casually, following Lydia into the dormitory.

"Hi," said Lily before she started back on her task.

Marlene shot Lydia a mildly panicked expression. From their very first night at Hogwarts, Lily Evans had a particularly strained relationship with Marlene and Lydia. Most of the tension stemmed from two key facts, the first being that Lily almost never spent time with her fellow Gryffindor fifth years and the second being Lily's choice in a best friend—Severus Snape. Nobody wanted to hang around greasy, nasty, odd Severus Snape and Lily was particularly blind to the fact that Severus had placed Lily on a particular pedestal whilst reviling any other muggle-born, Lydia included. Marlene and Emmeline in particular took Severus Snape's treatment of Lydia as a personal insult and Marlene never missed an opportunity to take a shot at him whenever he cast a nasty look towards the trio. As a result, Lily preferred to avoid her roommates, which often created awkward situations.

"Did you have a good Christmas at home, Lily?" Lydia asked, desperate to diffuse some of the tension. Lily's green eyes snapped up from the stack of clothes she'd taken from her trunk, evaluating Lydia warily.

"It was fine," she said. Lydia got the distinct impression that Lily might have been lying, but had no concrete evidence to prove it. "Yours?"

"Lovely," said Lydia, unable to think of anything else to say. Marlene chose to sprawl out on Lydia's bed as she began to unpack. There, resting on the top of a jumper, sat Paul the rock. Grinning, Lydia presented the rock to Marlene.

"Oh, Paul!" Cooed Marlene with exaggerated adoring. "Handsome Paul!"

"You're so weird, Marlene," noted Lydia.

The door to the dormitory opened and snapped shut. Lily had gone. Neither girl said a word about her sudden disappearance and instead turned on the radio and listened to the Wizard Wireless Network. They traded small tidbits of gossip they'd heard while Lydia unpacked.

X X X

Dinner that night found Emmeline Vance throwing her arms around Lydia's neck as they met in the Great Hall. The three girls ate most of their meals together, trading off between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. Together they sat together near the middle of the Gryffindor table where they could see most of the Great Hall.

"So, what was it this time? More protests against the war or fighting to save the one-footed green wattlebird?" Emmeline enquired as the large plates and platters magically filled up with food.

Lydia shook her sheet of pin straight champagne hair behind her shoulders, parted perfectly down the center of her head. "A rally in support of equal pay for women," said Lydia. "And I went to see Margaret Thatcher give a speech at Cambridge."

Marlene and Emmeline shot each other a disparaging look of long-suffering. By now they were used to Lydia's enthusiasm for muggle politics, imparted to her by her activist parents. During her school breaks she tended to completely immerse herself back in her home life, seeing old friends, spending time at the university, and going to lectures and rallies with her mother. In the heyday of the war, she'd gone to protests and carried signs right next to her parents. At school she read the muggle papers her parents sent on and her father often packed his letters with as much information as he could, resorting to the typewriter to get it all out. Lydia's obsession with staying connected to the muggle world was something of an endearing quirk to Marlene and Emmeline, who still found things like the muggle postal system confounding.

"Lyd, when you go home do you actually do fun things? Or do you just go to guest lectures with your parents?" Emmeline asked, passing a tureen of gravy to Marlene.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," muttered Lydia, but she knew exactly what Emmeline meant. She speared a carrot on her plate and chewed on it thoughtfully to buy extra time. "I like going to rallies and protests, they're a lot more fun than you think. It's nice to be a part of something bigger, you know? Everyone's getting together to fight for something and you see the craziest people there."

Marlene dramatically dropped her head on Emmeline's shoulder and pretended to snore loudly. Lydia cracked the shadow of a grin. The din of the crowd around them mostly drowned out their conversation to everyone but people sitting nearby, but they were blissfully alone.

Emmeline raised her pale eyebrows and then shook her head. "Yeah but you're fifteen, would it kill you to meet a cute muggle boy and spend some time snogging him in the park?"

"Who's snogging muggle boys?"

Marlene's fork clattered loudly on her plate. She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at James Potter as he sat down a short distance away from the girls. As usual, James was accompanied by Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black. He rumpled his already thoroughly mussed black hair and grinned widely at them, already knowing just how unwelcome he and his friends were.

"Couldn't be McKinnon," said Sirius thoughtfully. "No bloke would be crazy enough to go within ten meters of her."

"Perhaps the lovely Miss Vance?" James pondered, pretending to scratch his chin. From James' other side, Remus turned a funny shade of red and he hastily reached for the green beans, loading his plate up with far more than he needed. Sirius smirked at Remus before smacking James' shoulder with the back of his hand.

"Nah, it's got to be Lydia. She's the one with all the muggle know-how." he said. One of Lydia's eyebrows slipped up her forehead. Over the course of her four and a half years at Hogwarts, Lydia could count on one hand she heard Sirius Black call her by name. Lydia and her friends avoided James Potter and his friends as often as they could, not caring for the boatloads of trouble they caused. Lydia wouldn't have been surprised if Filch devoted an entire cabinet in his office to the quartet. The problem was, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were nearly unavoidable. Their popularity, though something a mystery to Lydia, skyrocketed with each passing year. She suspected it had something to do with the fact that James, Remus, and Sirius were all incredibly good-looking and intelligent, Sirius in particular.

James' shit-eating grin widened even further. "Come on and tell, Miss Beckett. Who is it? Some smarmy private school bloke? You're not snogging a university boy are you? I mean, it is a boy, isn't it?"

One of Lydia's eyebrows rose, negating the flush that swirled into her cheeks. "What I do is none of your business, James. And even if it weren't a boy would that be a problem?"

As soon as she spoke, Lydia knew she'd made a critical error. James and Sirius both cackled, Peter catching on a few seconds later. Remus' frown deepened. "Definitely not, Beckett," said Sirius.

"You four make Neanderthals look cultured," snapped Lydia and she pointedly turned back to Marlene and Emmeline, choosing to ignore the lot.

"Ignore them," muttered Emmeline.

"It's hard when their egos take up the whole hall," said Marlene and Lydia laughed in agreement.

No sooner had the girls started back in on dinner when Lily Evans walked into the Great Hall with Severus in tow, headed for their usual spot at the very end of the Gryffindor table which everyone left alone.

"Evans!" James shouted as she drew nearer, keeping her gaze fixed ahead. "First Hogsmeade visit, how about it? You, me, and a couple of butterbeers behind the shrieking shack?"

Lily stopped dead in her tracks and wheeled around to face James from across the table. Remus and Sirius ducked their heads in unison, trying to stifle their sniggers at her murderous expression. "Lord here we go again," muttered Emmeline.

"I'd rather date a troll," she shouted back, amid fresh laughter from the students nearby. "At least then I'd have an intelligent conversation."

James clutched his hands over his heart, as though he'd been shot by an arrow. "You wound me, Evans!"

"You'll live," she said, acid practically dripping from her voice. "Come on, Sev. Let's go before Potter's ego recovers."

Lydia watched as Lily marched away, head high in the air. Severus lingered long enough to glare at James and Sirius who returned the vitriol. Their mutual, utter loathing began on the very first day of school but James' and Severus' dislike morphed into absolute hatred once James began to fancy Lily.

"He's got the subtlety of a pink polka-dotted elephant, doesn't he?" Marlene said, marveling as Severus joined Lily at the end of the table and James attacked his dinner with fervor, good mood spoiled.

Lydia continued to eat her roast, when Emmeline threw an elbow into her side. "Arnie Henderson is back," she whispered.

Further down on the Hufflepuff table, Lydia caught a glimpse of Arnie Henderson, a sixth year boy. She didn't know him well, but he was friends with Frank who sat next to him. Arnie's pale skin looked more ashen than usual and even from a distance Lydia could make out the dark circles beneath his eyes. All of his golden blonde hair lay limp and askew across his forehead, a change from his usual impeccable appearance. He pushed his fork listlessly on his plate while his friends seemed at a loss for what to do.

"What happened?" Marlene asked, trying and failing to be discreet.

"His aunt and uncle disappeared during the holidays," said Sirius, butting into their conversation once more, though this time he was solemn.

"Yeah," said Emmeline glumly. "When I got back to the common room everyone was talking about it. I guess they just disappeared in the dead of night the day after Christmas. Nobody's heard a peep from them."

"Maybe they've gone into hiding?" Suggested Lydia.

Emmeline and Sirius both shifted uncomfortably in their seats. "They were muggles," said Emmeline.

Lydia was now long used to her parentage cropping up at unusual intervals. She was also accustomed to the notion that entire groups of witches and wizards hated her on principal alone. But that didn't make she shock of hearing about muggles being hurt any less upsetting. "Oh," said Lydia, staring at her plate.

"Arnie's dad had been working on a pro-muggle protection act," said James suddenly. "My dad said he'd been campaigning pretty hard to get it passed."

Lydia stole another glance at poor Arnie, who got up and left only moments later. "No wonder," whispered Marlene sadly. "Trying to do something like that at a time like this? What was Arnie's dad thinking?"

Marlene had a nasty habit of occasionally sticking her foot in her mouth. Lydia's stomach turned in a knot and her appetite vanished. Silently, she pushed her plate away. "Oh no, Lyd," said Marlene hurriedly. "I didn't mean," but Lydia shook her head and got to her feet.

"It's okay," she promised, though she was lying. "I promised my mum I'd write once I got home."

Without another word, Lydia left the great hall, wringing her hands. Arnie's muggle relatives disappeared? They weren't the first, and Lydia doubted they'd be the last. But the incident had tapped in on the fear that had been growing in Lydia's heart for years now. What if next time it wasn't more of Arnie's family? What if, next time, it was her parents or Rachel? The thought made her sick to her stomach.

X X X

Marlene spent the remainder of the weekend tripping all over herself to apologize. Lydia spent the remainder of her weekend trying to convince Marlene that she wasn't offended in the slightest. Emmeline spent the remainder of hers trying to broker some middle ground where Marlene didn't feel quite so guilty and Lydia would stop worrying. All in all, Lydia was glad when classes resumed on Monday because it gave all three girls something else to focus on.

Much to Lydia's delight, the Gryffindors were to end their Mondays with double charms. Where transfiguration was positively Lydia's worst subject, charms was her best. Something about the connection between the theory and wand word clicked for Lydia and she spent a few hours every week tutoring younger students on the subject. Ending her day with charms was something of a treat after being forced to endure transfiguration, ancient runes, and history of magic all in one day.

She managed to scrape through the morning and afternoon while the snow continued to come down outside. The castle and grounds were blanketed in a thick, pristine white blanket that kept rising with each passing hour. At one point, Lydia watched with a pang of sympathy, as a troupe of third years bundled up to trudge out to care of magical creatures.

"I don't envy them," said Marlene as she and Lydia made their way to the charms classroom.

Professor Flitwick was a young professor. He'd only started three years before, replacing his grumpy and ancient predecessor. Rumors flew about within his first week that in his youth, Flitwick had been a dueling champion. It was hard for Lydia to imagine tiny Professor Flitwick as a dueler, especially as he often used a teetering stack of books so he could see over the podium. He was there when Lydia and Marlene entered the classroom, using his wand to enchant a piece of chalk to begin scrawling notes across the blackboard.

"Take your seats," he said to the class, not really paying attention.

A whirl of activity was split nearly in half across the room. Gryffindors had charms with the Slytherins and there might have been an ocean between the two houses. Lydia and Marlene slid into desks near the middle of the classroom, next to Suzanne Wiggins, one of the other Gryffindor fifth year girls.

"Looks like review," she said hopefully. Suzanne was exceedingly nice, though often fell victim to teasing for her pimply face and tendency to wear her hair in pigtails that made her look closer to twelve rather than sixteen.

"I hope so," said Lydia while she dug into her bag for her notebook, quill, and glasses. It had taken years of begging, but Lydia finally managed to convince her parents to let a healer correct her deplorable distance vision with a set of spells, though she still required glasses for reading.

"Alright, alright, it's time to begin!" Flitwick announced and took his place behind the podium. "I hope you all had a relaxing holiday. Unfortunately for you all, OWLs are just around the corner and that means you'll be working harder than ever," he said over the collective groan of his class. "I want to remind you that starting in March I will be holding weekly review sessions for those students who wish the extra help and tutors are available, which I strongly urge some of you to consider!"

"Yeah Peter," said James from behind Lydia. "You heard the man."

Lydia tried not to smile when she heard Peter Pettigrew's indignant squeak. "We'll be doing review this week before moving onto charming inanimate objects," said Professor Flitwick. "Miss Evans, what is the correct wand movement for a summoning charm?"

Lily looked up form the furious notes she was taking. "A counter-clockwise wrist movement followed by a downward flick," she said.

"Yes, indeed. Take five points," said Professor Flitwick. "Miss Beckett! What is the core mental requirement for this spell?"

"Focus on the object, the greater the focus of the spell-caster, the further away the object can be."

"Right you are! Five points!"

Professor Flitwick continued his series of questions while students took notes until at last he seemed pleased with the theory review. "Those are the kinds of questions you may see on the written portion of the exam. Now then, I'm going to split you off into pairs to practice summoning and banishing objects." He rattled through a series of names and Marlene looked hopefully at Lydia.

"Miss McKinnon and Miss Evans," he said, much to the displeasure of both girls. "Mr. Lupin, perhaps today you can keep Mr. Potter reigned in."

"I'll do my best, sir," said Remus with a casual grin. James winked roguishly at him.

"Mr. Pettigrew, you'll pair up with Miss Wiggins. That leaves, Miss Beckett with Mr. Black."

Lydia felt a light tap on her shoulder. Rotating around she found Sirius sitting directly behind her. His slightly too-long ebony hair fell attractively around his face, and his grey eyes could almost mirror hers in color. She didn't care for the way he smirked at her, as though he found the entire exercise amusing.

"Shall we? Miss Beckett?" Even the way Sirius said her name irritated Lydia, too smooth for his own good.

"If we must," she said sarcastically. Sirius ignored her slight and they gathered their things, moving off to one corner of the room where a small box stuffed with pillows had been set up.

"Remember! OWL examiners will be looking at not only your proficiency with the spell but also your accuracy. Try to banish each pillow directly into the box and summon each pillow directly into the hands of your partner," shouted Professor Flitwick.

"Shouldn't be too hard, then," said Sirius breezily as they took their places. "Shall I go first or you?"

"You can," grumbled Lydia. "If you hit me in the face, I'll curse you into next week," she warned.

Sirius barked out a laugh. "I wouldn't dream of it, Miss Beckett. You're far to intimidating."

"Oh shut up," she said, other furthering his delight. They took their places and Sirius lazily rotated and flicked his wrist. A striped pillow zoomed out of the box and landed neatly in Lydia's waiting hands. She worked hard to keep her face arranged in a passive expression. No spell seemed too difficult for Sirius Black, and the arrogance with which he displayed his talent vexed Lydia to no end.

She knew at any given point during the lesson more than one hopeful glance would land in their direction. Girls followed Sirius, James, and Remus with little to no shame, but Sirius in particular. His good looks combined with charm and an innate elegance seemed to be what every witch wanted. Lydia didn't deny he was handsome, even out of the corner of her eye she could admire his aristocratic profile from his clear brow and straight nose to his perfectly rounded chin. His rebellious nature appealed even more to most girls who loved the now-famous story of the shock his sorting caused during their first year.

Lydia didn't mind rebellion. She was a child of parents who supported birth control and equal pay and opposed a war their country hadn't even participated in. She'd grown up in a house that eschewed church and encouraged her to go after any and every career she wanted. Lydia believed strongly in rebels, she just didn't think Sirius was a rebel for any good cause. What was the point of rebellion without cause?

Sirius finished summoning the cushions that now lay at their feet. One-by-one he banished each, charming them to not only land in the box, but stack neatly. "You're awfully deep in thought over there," said Sirius. "A little conversation wouldn't kill you."

The problem was, Lydia had no idea what to say to Sirius. They weren't enemies, but they certainly weren't friends. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize I'd gone so quiet," she said hastily. Using her exercise to fill in the gaps, Lydia pointed her wand at the top pillow and performed the charm, which to her relief, went perfectly. She wasn't about to be outdone by Sirius Black in her best subject.

"Ah, a competent partner," said Sirius. "What a nice change of pace."

Lydia snorted in poorly concealed laughter. "Because you're starving for talent between James and Remus."

"You ever partner with Peter? It's an unholy nightmare. I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't already set one of those pillows on fire," said Sirius before he raked his fingers through his hair. Somewhere behind them, Lydia heard and honest to God longing sigh. Turning around just enough to get a look, she saw Suzanne Wiggins staring longingly at Sirius. Her crush on him was no secret and had often become a point of embarrassment for the poor girl.

"Can't say I've had that joy," said Lydia sending another pillow flying into Sirius' hands.

"Lucky you," said Sirius under his breath.

Out of seemingly nowhere, a pillow flew across a short distance and smacked Lydia across the face. The impact forced Lydia's glasses painfully into the side of her face, slamming against the bridge of her nose before falling to the floor, the glass lenses cracking on impact. Lydia's wand fell to the floor with a clatter as she brought her hands to her face and stumbled, right into a pair of strong hands.

"Easy," said Sirius, grasping her shoulders and steadying her. Several Slytherins nearby howled in wicked laughter as Lydia tried to blink away the tears that sprang to her lower eyelids. "Are you alright?"

Lydia nodded, squeezing her eyes shut, determined not to let anyone see her cry. Sirius, still holding onto her, turned her so her back was to rest of the class, allowing her a few more seconds to gather her composure. "She should be more careful," said a nasty voice. "Stupid mudblood."

Sirius's hands tightened for a split second before he let go and Lydia recovered just in time to see him spell the pillow. It shot across the room with enough force that when it hit Mulciber, he toppled backwards. The previously outraged Gryffindors all burst into laughter. "Shut your mouth, Mulciber. Or I'll send a brick flying your way next," he growled.

Professor Flitwick had worked his way through the small crowd that gathered, quickly diffusing the chaos. Lydia, too mortified to face anyone dropped to her knees to collect her wand, but someone else beat her to her glasses. Lifting her head, she saw Sirius mere inches away from her. His grey eyes flashed in anger and his lips were drawn in a straight line, barely suppressing his fury. Her glasses lay in one of his hands and with the other he tapped the bridge. " _Reparo_ ," he said softly and handed them over.

Lydia accepted them just as the bell rang. "Thank you," she said and without another look at him, grabbed her stuff and raced out of the classroom, Marlene hot on her heels. In her mortified haste to escape, Lydia forgot her notebook and she didn't see the quizzical expression on Sirius' face as he picked it up, flipping open the cover to see her name written neatly inside.

 **A/N: The whole dinner scene was a ton of fun to write. I hope you guys liked it! Next chapter features Sirius being nosey, a little Lily, and more Marauder humor!**

 **Let me know what you guys think! Review are love - Kappa**


	3. You're My Best Friend

**A/N: Hi all! So chapter 2 is a little more setup and the start of the first small arc of this story. This chapter features some melodrama as well as maybe an unusual choice for Lydia and Lily's relationship? I dunno, I haven't read a ton of MWPP fics that began after the 7** **th** **book to know. Give it some time – I have a grand plan for each major friendship/relationship! I hope you like the banter between Lydia and Sirius…have I mentioned this story is a slow burn? Apologies for any typos – I have no beta!**

 **Thank you so, so, so much for the follows, favorites, and reviews! I PM signed-in reviewers and will try to answer guest reviewer questions in the a/n at the bottom of the chapter! I'm so glad you guys are liking this story so far. I'm having a blast writing it! Anyway, without further ado – here's chapter 2!**

 **Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter. God, I wish I did.**

 **The Lonely Hearts Club**

 **Chapter 2 – You're My Best Friend**

Lydia fled to the Gryffindor tower, taking the stairs to her dormitory two at a time. Flattening herself against the wall, she let her bag slip off her shoulder and fall to the floor. Her face still throbbed from the places where her glasses bit into her skin, but not nearly as bad as her pride hurt. Closing her eyes, she willed herself not to try, but a few tears slipped out anyway. Hastily, she wiped them away just as Marlene practically threw herself into the dormitory, clutching a stitch at her side.

"Merlin's beard you're fast," she said through gasps. "Are you okay?"

Cracking one of her stormy eyes open, Lydia found Marlene bent at the waist. She braced her hands on her knees, bag dangling awkwardly from her shoulder and skirt riding up the in back, practically flashing anyone who might walk in after her. If she weren't so upset, Lydia would have laughed.

"No," said Lydia. Marlene was one of her best friends and consequently one of the few people she felt most comfortable with.

Straightening up, Marlene took Lydia's hand and led her away from the wall. Lydia sat down on her closed trunk at the foot of her bed, dropping her head into her hands. "Does your face still hurt?"

Lydia nodded awkwardly, wishing the bridge of her nose didn't feel like it was just short of broken. She heard the creak of her trunk lid creak as Marlene sat next to her, bringing a comforting arm about her shoulder. Reflexively, Lydia leaned into Marlene. "Why don't you go to the hospital wing? I bet Madam Pomfrey could fix it in a second."

"I'm not giving Mulciber the satisfaction," Lydia snapped.

"Okay, okay, just a suggestion," said Marlene warily, all-too-familiar with Lydia's stubborn righteous streak. "We could go down to dinner and spend it chucking dungbombs at him."

Unbidden to her, Lydia smiled. She gently bumped her shoulder into Marlene's. "Neither of us have any dungbombs," she pointed out.

"Well, then we can spend dinner shooting dirty looks at the Slytherin table and invent wildly outrageous scenarios for revenge. I bet if we sit at the Hufflepuff table, Emmeline and Frank will happily join in." Lydia pulled back and shook her head.

"I'm not really hungry," she said. "I think I'm just going to head to the library and start on my homework."

Marlene's face fell and she reached out and pushed a lock of Lydia's hair behind her ear, searching out the damage on Lydia's face. From their first day at Hogwarts, Marlene's sole goal in life was to become a healer. As a result she often crossed over the line between friend and mothering hen, much to Lydia and Emmeline's dismay. "You're going to bruise," she said and gently prodded the bridge of Lydia's nose which was already quite tender.

Hissing, Lydia pulled back. "That happens when you get attacked with zero provocation."

"Mulciber's really foul," said Marlene in a low, angry voice. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but for the first time ever I'm glad Sirius was around. If he hadn't caught you, you'd probably have woken up in the hospital wing."

Lydia's stomach turned over itself. She still remembered his strong, warm hands latching onto her body and her shoulder falling into his chest, as he tried to steady her. Without his assistance, Lydia certainly would have hit her head on the floor. Sirius was stronger than she expected, and she was incredibly grateful he'd spared her from further embarrassment. Pulling her glasses from her shirt pocket, she stared at the tortoise shell frames and perfect, uncracked lenses, recalling how close he'd been when she looked up. Sirius' eyes were as grey as hers, framed by long and dark eyelashes, something she'd never noticed before.

"Yeah, I was glad when he socked Mulciber back too."

Marlene gave a short laugh. "That was a nice touch. Doesn't mean I like him or his stupid friends."

"Me either," said Lydia in agreement and then patted Marlene's knee. "You should go to dinner, I'm fine now."

"No, you're not Lyd. I wouldn't be either."

"Okay, I'm not fine. I'm mad. I'm livid actually, which is why it's best if I just go straight to the library. If I see Mulciber and his lackeys there's no telling what I'd do."

Marlene slumped against Lydia's bed, dropping her head to rest on the fluffy scarlet comforter. Lydia stared around the circular room, already chaotic after only two days. It was tempting to go down to dinner and cause a scene and it was equally tempting to curl up under her covers and sulk. But Lydia wasn't one for sulking and causing a scene would only make matters worse. "Perhaps that's for the best," said Marlene. "God knows we don't need a repeat of the great Bat Bogey Hex of 1973. You were in detention for two weeks."

Lydia grinned. "Yeah, but Potter deserved it after he put those spiders in my school bag." An involuntary shudder slipped down Lydia's spine, she hated spiders.

Marlene laughed as she got to her feet. "Potter always deserves it," she said. "Will you at least let me heal the bruising before I go to dinner and you to the library?"

Lydia relented and Marlene had just finished her simple healing spells when Lily and Suzanne came in. Immediately, Suzanne rushed to Lydia's side and paused just long enough to ensure she was alright before spinning off into raptures over Sirius' gallant rescue. Lydia made a sound reminiscent of an angry cat and she just caught Lily rolling her eyes on the other side of the room. The ghost of a smile touched the corners of Lily's mouth and she shrugged as if to say 'what else did you expect?'

"Sirius just kept me from falling down and did exactly what I would have done had I been able to see," said Lydia as she began to gather her school books. "He definitely did not rescue me and he definitely wasn't some knight in shining armor."

"Yeah, but he was so angry," said Suzanne insistently. "You should have seen the look on his face while he was holding you."

As one, Lydia and Marlene started laughing. The mere prospect of Sirius holding Lydia threatened to send her rolling on the floor; it as as likely a scenario as Professor McGonagall putting on tap shoes and doing a number in front of the whole school wearing a sequined dress. "Suzanne, you have got to stop reading romance novels," said Lily emphatically, surprising everyone. Lily rarely interjected herself into the conversation. But it seemed even she couldn't stomach Suzanne's over-romanticized version of the events, most certainly fueled by the eye-popping number of romance novels she voraciously read in her spare time. "Marlene and I were right there, Sirius caught Lydia and got her upright before letting go."

"Nothing more, nothing less," agreed Lydia. Frustration prickled at her stomach, it was bad enough that she'd already endured the embarrassment of being Mulciber's target, but listening to her friends talk about it only made it worse for her. Lydia detested dwelling on unpleasantness, especially when it came to being target practice for pig-headed Slytherins. After all, it wasn't the first time Lydia had come under unfriendly fire and she suspected it wouldn't be the last.

Marlene nodded. "Though I wish Sirius had transfigured that pillow into a brick, serves Mulciber right."

"And I wish we'd stop talking about it," said Lydia, exasperated and angry all over again. "If I think about it any more my head is going to explode."

Marlene took Suzanne by her shoulders and steered her towards the door. "Suzanne, why don't we go down to dinner. You were going to summarize the plot of _The Warlock's Passion_ for me and I'm just dying to hear all about it," she exclaimed, lying right through her teeth. Casting Lydia a glance over her shoulder, Marlene rolled her eyes. "Lyd, I'll bring you something eat later."

"Thanks!" Said Lydia and released a relieved sigh when the door shut. "Suzanne has the most over-active imagination of any girl I've ever met," she said. Lily dumped her bag on her bed and pulled out a couple of books, switching them for her potions books. She looked up at Lydia, sympathy on her face.

"Too bad she only uses it to invent romances that don't exist. During history of magic today I caught her doodling hers and Sirius' initials on her parchment instead of taking notes," said Lily.

"She'd romanticize Filch and Professor Sinistra if she thought she saw a spark."

Lily laughed and Lydia realized with a start it was the first time they'd ever shared a joke before. "Maybe I should invent it, just to see what she'd come up with. A tale of forbidden love, stolen glances, hearts overlooking…certain…obvious flaws."

"You mean the fact that Filch looks like an old leather jacket that's gone through the dryer?" Lydia enquired, knowing that muggle-born Lily would get the reference.

This time both girls laughed. Lily seemed relaxed in light of their conversation, sweeping her sheet of glistening auburn hair over her narrow shoulder. Her green eyes took on a sympathetic light. "Are you sure you don't want to come down to dinner? It'd show Mulciber that he can't get to you."

Lydia shook her head. The anger and frustration that just barely bubbled beneath her skin reared its ugly head again. "I don't want to see any of those Slytherin gits."

"Yeah, but the best way to get revenge is to show that he can't get away with bullying you and showing that he can't hurt you."

"What would you know about it?" The words left Lydia's mouth before she could stop them. Lily's eyes widened in surprise; though they weren't exactly friends, they'd never butted heads before. But the day's events had taken their toll on Lydia and having Lily Evans of all people try and tell her how to handle bullying Slytherins was too much. "Last time I checked you've never been on the receiving end of any Slytherin curse."

Lily turned fuchsia and she mouthed wordlessly for several painful seconds. "That's not fair," she stammered.

"It's not? Because I'm pretty sure if you asked any other muggle-born in this castle they'd all tell you what it's like to be the victim of Mulciber and Avery and even your best friend, who certainly doesn't mind practicing his curses on first and second years who get in his way."

Lydia knew it wasn't nice, but she couldn't help herself, her temper had gotten the better of her. "Leave Severus out of this," said Lily hotly.

"No offense, Lily, but Severus Snape's the only reason you've never been bullied like the rest of us have. Maybe you should ask him why you're the single exception to Mulciber and Avery's blanket policy on heckling muggle-borns." In an instant, the small shred of good will that Lydia and Lily had just built up vanished, gone in the wake of Lydia's erratic temper and long-running annoyance that Lily Evans alone skated through nearly five years without so much as a jelly-legs curse put on her.

"You don't know a thing about Severus," said Lily, her voice trembling. Lydia recoiled ever-so-slightly. Lily's temper was infamous, though almost always exclusively aimed at James Potter. "Or about our friendship."

Lydia shrugged, already knowing she'd crossed a line, but it was far too late. "You're right," she said. "But if it's all the same, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't try to tell me how to handle being bullied by Mulciber or any other Slytherin for that matter."

Without another word, Lydia stormed out of the dormitory, leaving Lily near tears. Even in the half a dozen steps she'd taken outside of the dorm guilt crept into the edges of her anger, threatening to eclipse it altogether. Lydia was so consumed by her anger and guilt she wasn't even remotely looking where she was going and nearly bowled Alice Millner over in the hall. Knocked back against the stone wall, Alice threw her hand out to steady herself, eyes wide.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down, Lyd! Marlene told me what happened. I was headed to find you before you went to the library. Are you alright?"

Guilt and anger and shame burned in Lydia's chest and face. Clenching her fists at her side, Lydia struggled to keep the hot tears at bay and she shook her head. Alice wrapped an arm around Lydia's shoulders and guided her towards the staircase. "Forget the library," she said briskly. "Let's go to the kitchens. You're in no state to be seen by anyone else, even in the library. We can talk it out there."

X X X

Sirius turned over the black and white composition notebook in his hands. The corners were just beginning to peel and several of the pages were dog-eared on the inside. The notebook bore the signs of constant use and on the cursory look he'd taken, Sirius was surprised at how small Lydia could write. He'd intended to return the notebook to Lydia at dinner, but she never showed. He'd overheard Marlene McKinnon mention something about the library from where she sat with Emmeline, but Lydia was nowhere to be found when he'd stopped by shortly after dinner. Perhaps Marlene had been lying and Lydia was hiding up in the girl's dormitory.

Hiding was an understandable response. The very brief glimpse he'd seen of Lydia's face hadn't been pretty; unless she'd sought medical attention, she was sure to bruise. Sirius didn't mind wearing his bruises as badges of honor, but he could easily see why Lydia wouldn't feel the same. Still, bruises or not, the thought that she might be ensconced behind the curtains of her four poster bed surprised Sirius. He knew next to nothing about Lydia Beckett; but even then, she didn't strike Sirius as the cowardly, hiding type.

Yet, hours had gone by and Lydia never appeared in the common room. Neither had Marlene, which led Sirius to suspect that the girls were off somewhere with their other best friend, Emmeline Vance. While he waited, Sirius contemplated digging deeper into the notebook. Normally, he wouldn't have hesitated, but after the day's events it seemed wrong to add insult to Lydia Beckett's injury by going through her things, even if it was just her Charms notebook.

"Hey," Remus Lupin said, having just come into the common room. Remus flopped onto the sofa, slumping down into the red velvet cushion. His shining prefects badge stood out on his robes and Sirius swallowed his smirk. There was virtually no end to the jokes that Sirius and James made at Remus' expense when they heard the news of his appointment. James supposed that Dumbledore made Remus a prefect with the hope that he'd keep his best friends in line. To say that Remus had failed miserably at this endeavor was putting it politely. More often than not, Remus was their lookout during prefect's duty or giving his friends advance warning of who was on patrol and where.

"How was prefect's duty?" He enquired, far too innocently.

Remus raised a pale eyebrow. "It was fine," he said, suspicion rising in his tone. "Why?"

Now Sirius did smile at his friend's protracted question. "No reason," he said inspecting his fingernails. "Though it's possible that James and Peter are out concealing dungbombs in the dungeons in hopes that Mulciber steps on one tomorrow morning."

A look of long-suffering came to Remus' face. "They're in luck, Frank Longbottom is patrolling the dungeons tonight. Chances are he'll help them out if he heard about what happened to Lydia."

Satisfied, Sirius turned the notebook over in his hands again, mind pulled back to Lydia Beckett. "Speaking of Miss Beckett, have you seen her tonight?"

"No, but I wasn't exactly looking either. Why?"

Sirius held up the notebook. "She left this at the end of Charms, thought I'd do the polite thing for once and return it."

A familiar air of skepticism came over Remus, he raked his fingers through his sandy hair and held a hand out for the notebook. Though he couldn't explain why, Sirius was hesitant to hand it over. Remus, ever the perfect gentleman, would likely want to ensure the notebook went back to Lydia untouched. Sirius didn't object to this in the slightest, except he wanted to be the one to return the notebook. He had, after all been the one to keep Lydia from an unpleasant meeting with the flagstone floor, repaired her glasses, and gotten back at Mulciber. Why shouldn't he be the one to give the notebook back?

"What did you find in it?" Remus asked, opening the over to examine Lydia's neat, miniscule handwriting.

"Haven't looked through it," said Sirius. He kicked his feet up onto the coffee table in front of the sofa. Staring imperiously around the common room, he noticed a trio of fourth year girls speaking in hushed tones while casting not-so-secretive glances in his direction. He winked roguishly at them, lips turning up in a smirk. As a unit, the girls turned scarlet and put their heads together, whispering and giggling wildly.

"I don't know if I should be worried or impressed," said Remus. "Normally you'd be digging for any and all dirt you could find."

Sirius shrugged. "It's a school notebook, not her diary. It's not like she's writing her deepest secrets in between magical theory on on silencing charms. Besides, I think Lydia's endured enough today, don't you think?"

"I sincerely doubt Lydia Beckett is stupid enough to write down her deepest darkest secrets anywhere," said Remus, piquing Sirius' curiosity. Remus hadn't taken his eyes off the notebook while he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Although, she is the best in our year in Charms. I bet her notes are excellent."

To Sirius' immense surprise, Remus began to thumb through the pages. "She's the best in our year? I thought you were?"

Pained, Remus shook his head. "She beat me on last year's final exam by three points. Very painful to remember. I'd really rather not talk about it," he explained in dramatic fashion. Sirius enjoyed Remus' dry and deprecating sense of humor, it was one of his best qualities.

Chuckling, Sirius undid the knot on his tie and slid it out from around his neck. He unbuttoned the top two buttons, vaguely aware that his fourth-year admirers were watching him with rapt attention. "I did not know that," he said slowly. Remus continued to flick through the notebook, pausing every so often to read a snippet here and there. "Are you planning on memorizing the whole thing before I return it?"

Remus started at the sound of Sirius' voice, looking up from the notebook. "What? Oh, of course not," he said hastily. "Although she's managed to chart out all of the different mood charms, theory, wand work, effects, and countercharm for each. Ah, she's even written up some practical tricks for improving the charm's strength without overdoing it," he lamented. "I wish I'd thought about that on the last exam. Having notes this well-organized would be so useful for the OWLs."

Comprehension slowly dawned on Sirius as he peered over Remus' shoulder, marveling at the absolute meticulous nature of Lydia's notes. "Moony," he said, drawing out the word. "Are you suggesting what I think you are?"

Flushing beet red, Remus snapped the notebook shut. "No, of course not. I can't go around making," but he stopped short as though even saying the words out loud would bring trouble down on him. "I'm a prefect. Plus, Lydia would be furious if she found out."

Sirius snatched the notebook out of Remus' hands, waggling his eyebrows suggestively at his friend. "You might be a prefect, but I'm not. And if she's so brilliant, it can't hurt to make a copy or two for our own reference. After all, OWLs are coming up and one can never study too much."

Remus snorted in poorly concealed laughter. " _You're_ planning on doing any intense studying for the OWLs? I thought you and James were just going to wing the whole thing," he said sarcastically.

"Don't be ridiculous," said Sirius dismissively as he got to his feet. If he was going to make copies of Lydia's notes then he certainly wasn't going to do it in the common room where she could catch him at any second. "Of course we're going to study, but all the better for us if someone else has already done all the hard work."

Sirius started towards boy's staircase, grinning broadly when Remus' voice followed him. "Because God forbid you make an effort!"

X X X

"Severus!" Lily called out as she hurried down the empty fourth floor corridor the following morning. Clear rays of weak sun spilled through the high arched windows, casting Lily's shadow on the far stone wall. Her half-wet hair clung to the back of her robes as she jogged to catch up with the Severus Snape's retreating figure.

The very second he heard his name he stopped and wheeled back around. Almost immediately the sour expression on his face cleared and he relaxed. Lily had just caught him leaving the library and his arms were clamped tight around a thick stack of books. "Hi," he said and hastily pushed his dark hair from his face. "What's up?"

Lily smiled at him and earned his grin in return. "Sorry I didn't see you at dinner last night," she said and they fell into step together. "I got into a fight with Lydia Beckett and by the time I was calm enough to leave the dormitory I wasn't hungry, so I stayed in and finished that Ancient Runes assignment and started on Transfiguration," she explained hurriedly.

Severus frowned just slightly. "You fought with Beckett?" He sneered and Lily tried to shrug off the disgusted way he said Lydia's last name. "About what?"

Sensing that avenue of conversation could take a decidedly nasty turn, Lily shrugged it off. "Nothing important," she lied and tilted her head to get a better look at the books Severus carried. The titles were all on a similar theme: _Defense Against Dangerous Creatures_ ; _One Thousand Hexes to Heckle Hags, Horntails, Hippogriffs, and More_ ; _The Practical Creature Defense Practicum: Levels 6-7_. Lily raised an eyebrow. "Sev, honestly? Haven't you already read every dark arts book the library has to offer?"

Severus ignored her disparaging tone and kept on walking, tightening his hold on the books. "These are from the restricted section. Professor Colfer gave me a permission slip to begin reviewing for the OWLs," he explained.

"You know," said Lily tentatively. "You're already going to get an O on the Defense OWL. People might like you more if you didn't spend so much time researching the dark arts," she said, digging up a very familiar conversation topic.

Sure enough, Severus bristled at the mere suggestion. "I don't need people to like me," he said brusquely. "I have friends enough."

Lily rolled her eyes. "You have me," she said and pointedly ignored the flush that stained his cheeks at her words. "Avery, McNair, and Mulciber do not count as friends," she said doggedly, still determined to get Severus to cut ties with his Slytherin friends.

"Of course they do. Who else do you think I spent time with when we aren't together?"

"They're not nice people," she said pointedly. "I thought what Mulciber did to Lydia in Charms yesterday was really foul and I saw Avery cornering some poor second years the day before that, threatening to curse them if they didn't give him their chocolate frogs," she said.

A rather twisted sort of grin curled up the corners of Severus' thin mouth. "Are you surprised? Avery will eat just about anything," he said, referring to Darius Avery's insatiable appetite and size approximating one of Hagrid's Halloween pumpkins. "And since when do you care about Beckett? I thought you said you fought with her last night."

They started walking down the stairs towards the Great Hall, where breakfast would surely be in full swing in advance of lessons. Lily huffed and trailed a step behind him, immediately wishing she hadn't pursued the conversation. Severus was as stubborn about his friends as she was about defending her sister against his occasionally ruthless attacks. "Yeah and we fought because I told her to come do dinner so she could show Mulciber that his bullying tactics were useless."

Severus chuckled. "Mulciber cursed a pillow to fly at her face. It's not his fault she and Black overreacted." He actually spat Sirius Black's name out, betraying his utter hatred for Lily's fellow Gryffindor.

"It was bullying, Sev. And I _know_ that you know that," she said firmly and jogged a few steps ahead of him, whirling around to face him as he reached the bottom step. She reached out and touched his forearm. Severus stilled under her touch and she gave him her best imploring look. "Lydia said the only reason Mulciber and the rest don't do the same to me is because you tell them not to, but that you don't stand up for anyone else."

Severus stiffened and his eyes darted away from Lily, all but confirming the theory. She'd been his best friend for years, Lily could tell when he was lying and when he wanted to avoid the subject. "I don't know why you're listening to that stupid girl," he said bitterly. "She's just trying to get a rise out of you."

"Sev, just tell me if it's true," she persisted. "I'm muggle-born like Lydia and a lot of the other students here. Why can't you stand up for them if you're going to stand up for me too?"

Severus brushed gently past her. "I can't stop my friends from having a little fun now and then," he said casually. "And I don't have to tell them to leave you alone. They'd never do anything to you, why would they?"

"Maybe because I'm a muggle-born?" Lily posited harshly. Her words stopped Severus dead in his tracks. "Just because you pretend like I'm not, doesn't mean it isn't the truth."

He returned to her, standing close enough so only she could hear him as he spoke. "You're not like the rest of them," he said, desperate for her to understand. Lily crossed her arms tightly over her chest and shifted her weight uncomfortably. "And if I tried to get Mulciber and the rest to back off they'd only be worse."

"I wish you weren't friends with them," she said. "They're so mean and you're just not like that."

Severus sighed, eyes darting to the students that walked past them, trickling into the Great Hall. With his arms full of books he was an open target to his peers, namely James Potter and Sirius Black. Lily scowled. "Don't listen to Lydia Beckett. She doesn't know anything about either of us. Let's just go to breakfast, okay?"

He didn't wait for her to respond. Instead, he turned and started into the Great Hall. Lily had no choice but to follow him, winding between the house tables. Out of the corner of her eye she saw James Potter holding court with his friends, laughing heartily at something with Sirius Black. Further down, Marlene McKinnon and Alice Millner were deep in conversation with Frank Longbottom and Emmeline Vance. Next to them, Lydia Beckett searched frantically through her school bag for something. Severus sat down in his usual spot at the very end of the Gryffindor table, sighing in relief when he dropped the heavy books on the tabletop, disturbing a knot of first years nearby.

X X X

" _Damnit_ ," said Lydia harshly as she tore through her bag.

"What's wrong?" Emmeline asked, turning her attention away from where Frank was regaling them with more tales from his highly unusual house and highly unusual mother.

"My Charms notebook is gone," she bemoaned. "I couldn't find it in the dormitory last night or this morning and it's not in my bag. I've no idea what happened to it." Lydia continued to triple check her books and other notebooks within her school bag, trying to convince herself that she'd missed it in there somehow.

"That's a drag," said Emmeline, though not as sympathetically as Lydia would have liked. "Do you think you left it in Flitwick's room after class yesterday?"

Lydia stopped and straightened, mouth parting softly. The gears in her brain turned rapidly, considering the suggestion. She definitely hadn't seen the notebook since Charms. She also had left in a hurry. "You might be right," she said, brightening up. Pushing up her shirt sleeve, she checked her watch. "If I leave right now I can probably catch Professor Flitwick before we have to be down in the green houses."

"Don't let me keep you," said Emmeline with a sunny smile. "Hope you find it. We're all counting on your expertise to get us through the Charms OWL."

A lopsided grin tugged at Lydia's mouth. "Glad to know your concern isn't selfish at all."

Emmeline waved her off and Lydia gathered up her things, slinging her bag on her shoulder. She snatched the last half of her English muffin and headed out of the Great Hall, praying the Professor Flitwick was still in his office. Lydia did not see Sirius Black's grey eyes follow her movements, nor did she see him fluidly rise to his feet, giving his friends a vague excuse about forgetting something upstairs.

Professor Flitwick's office was on the seventh floor, tucked away near the west tower. There was no fast route to his office and Lydia started up the staircases, hoping she wouldn't be late to Herbology. As she walked, she tried to remember exactly where in the classroom she'd last seen her notebook. She'd taken her notes in it during lecture and then they'd all been partnered up for the practical exercises. Lydia knew she'd grabbed the notebook when she and Sirius went off to work. It had been laying to the side of her bag, which she'd grabbed in her hurry to get out of the classroom.

Lydia stopped in the middle of the flight of stairs between the fourth and fifth floors. "Oh you've got to be kidding me," she said as she realized exactly what had happened to her Charms notebook.

"Looking for something?" A velvet smooth voice drifted up the staircase.

Sure enough, when Lydia turned around, there he was. Sirius Black leaned against the the stone bannister, arms crossed loosely over his chest. His lips pulled into a non-threatening, but almost condescending smile as his eyes flicked from the top of Lydia's head all the way down to her black school shoes. He held her Charms notebook by the corner, swinging it lightly back and forth.

"As a matter of fact, I am," she said and took each step down to him one at a time. Sirius held it out to her with a flourish of his hand, far too elegant for his own good. The hairs on the back of Lydia's neck stood on end, a warning that this was much too easy. "What did you do to it?" She asked, warily.

One of Sirius' dark eyebrows rose and his smirk widened. If he weren't so handsome he would look downright dangerous, thought Lydia. "What makes you think I did something to it?" He asked, the picture of innocence.

Lydia crossed her arms over her chest. "Because you're you, and you wouldn't be you if you didn't do something to it."

For a split second a surprised light filtered through his eyes, only to be replaced by his nonchalant amusement. "You really don't trust me, do you?"

"Why should I?" She enquired. "You don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to not messing with people when the opportunity knocks."

He laughed and the sound came out sharp, almost like a bark. "Well, how about because I don't think you deserve to have salt rubbed in your wounds after yesterday? We were on the same team for a minute there."

Hesitant to the last, Lydia took the notebook and quickly thumbed the pages. Everything appeared to be in perfect order, much to her surprise. "Only for a minute," she confirmed. "But thanks for saving me the extra embarrassment of falling flat on my face and thanks for returning my notebook."

Lydia gave him the best friendly smile she could muster and then brushed past him, destined for the greenhouses. "Wait, that's it?"

Sirius' question carried an inflection she'd never heard from him before. The genuine surprise and shock in his voice was enough to pique her curiosity and turned around once more to face him. "What's it?"

"I mean I did you a solid favor yesterday. I could have messed with that notebook too, you're lucky I didn't tell James about it because he definitely would have."

"You want me to thank you for being a decent guy?" Lydia asked, torn between exasperation and shock. "Really?"

Sirius shrugged one of his shoulders and drew closer to her. He shoved his hands in his pockets. "I dunno, most other girls would be a bit more grateful. That's all I'm saying."

Her jaw dropped. What was he expecting her to do? Put on some pearls and fall at his feet? Sirius must have known he'd crossed a line because he closed his mouth, ending anything he might have uttered after his unbelievable display of idiocy. "Most girls?" She echoed, acid in her voice. "What I think you're insinuating is that most girls would fall all over themselves in gratitude, as if it's the duty of all females you assist to immediately fall for your charms, that they should be so lucky to be graced by your attention! Well, I've got news for you, if you're expecting some overboard expression of gratitude for doing something that every normal, socially conscious human being would do then you're out of your mind. Because I am not most girls."

"So I'm rapidly gathering," he said and fell into step with her as she tried to make a hasty exit. Unfortunately for Lydia, Sirius' legs were long enough that he could easily match her stride. That, combined with their common destination left her with no choice but to walk with him down to the greenhouses. The bell echoed through the castle, signaling five minutes until the start of classes. For the most part they walked in silence, Lydia trying not to be late and Sirius determined to stay with her. He seemed to be mulling over something Lydia had said as they walked out of the castle onto the sloping lawns. It was cold and their breaths came out in visible puffs. As they neared the greenhouses, he finally found his voice.

"You know, I'm actually a pretty nice guy," he said as though his opinion of himself settled the matter.

Lydia shook her head in disbelief. "Here's a hint. Guys who have to justify themselves by saying they're nice usually aren't nice guys."

Sirius laughed again, pointing a triumphant finger at her. "Hah! You said usually! Clearly, I'm an exception to the rule."

Swinging her ponytail over her shoulder, Lydia couldn't keep the smug grin off her face. "I've known you for almost five years, Sirius. Trust me, you're not."

His exclamation of mock offense echoed into the open door to the greenhouse as Lydia stepped inside, flush from annoyance. Silently, she took her place between Marlene and Suzanne who both watched, slack-jawed as Sirius strolled into the greenhouse. Lydia watched gob smacked as he gave her a wink before perching on a stool next to James.

"What was that about?" Marlene asked in a rather disgusted tone of voice.

"Ugh, I really don't want to talk about it. Suffice to say that if Sirius Blacks' ego were any larger he'd be floating to his classes."

Marlene clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter, while Suzanne eyed Lydia jealously. She was saved from further questioning when Professor Sprout appeared from the adjacent greenhouse, calling the class to order. Lydia settled in to take notes, but more than once she noticed Sirius Black's eyes trailing back to her, a tiny grin toying at the corners of his mouth.

 **A/N: Ahh I hope you liked it! I'm worried about how Lydia's tiff with Lily will be received, I re-wrote it about four times. Next chapter features mischief, Lydia's guilt, and James being…well…James.**

 **Let me know what you think! I'd love to heard feedback, suggestions, questions, any particular favorite parts – whatever! Much love – Kappa.**


	4. Evil Woman

**A/N: Hi all! Sorry for the delay, the past couple of weeks have been so, so busy. I was in my best friend's wedding this past weekend and it took up way more of my time than I thought it would! Anyway, this chapter features some humor and some scheming along with more development on the Lydia/Lily dynamic. For the record, I love Lily – and as the story goes on her relationship with Lydia will progress. I just couldn't bring myself to give them an easy road to friendship.**

 **Also – I really feel like the first lyric and title of this chapter title song pretty much encapsulates Sirius and James' feelings towards Lydia in this chapter haha! Also, I happen to love this particular song.**

 **Thank you, thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! I hope that you guys are liking it! I'd really love to hear what you all think!**

 **Disclaimer – I don't own** _ **Harry Potter**_ **. If only I did.**

 **The Lonely Hearts Club**

 **Chapter 3 – Evil Woman**

The first Saturday morning of the winter term dawned clear and cold. A fresh blanket of snow covered the grounds, tempting many groups of students outside to engage in ferocious snowball fights and to build snowmen, charming them to move and change colors. Sirius longed to be causing mischief, spelling snowballs to pelt themselves at unsuspecting passersby, turning the patches of snow right outside of the school entrances into slick ice, and cursing the sleds of his schoolmates to zoom down the sloping lawns three times too fast. He was fidgety and irritable, desperate for any way to occupy his time until sundown.

"Sirius, you're not focusing," said Remus tiredly.

Sirius had been staring off into the distance, daydreaming about burying rocks and other unpleasant surprises in snowballs to fling at Snape and his Slytherin cronies. Snapping his attention back to matters at hand, he groaned to see that his school work was still spread out in front of him. Remus fixed him with an unusually stern glare, the kind he saved for occasions such as this. Pale and peaky, the effects of tonight's full moon were already having an impact of Remus. He was exhausted and tetchy, exhibiting even less tolerance for his friends' idiocy than usual.

"I hate this rule of yours, Moony," Sirius said, very nearly crossing over into outright whining.

Remus' glare did not abate; if anything it only became more intense and he roughly shoved Sirius' potions homework back towards him. "You're getting off easy, imagine the restrictions I could have placed on you all."

James looked even more put out than Sirius felt. Every so often he let out an exaggerated sigh, rumpling his hair in frustration. But the rule was the rule. After Sirius, James and Peter managed to become animagi, Remus only agreed to let them accompany him on the full moon under the condition that they all got their homework finished before they went. It was a little way for Remus to assuage his guilt, ensuring that even if his friends were stupid enough to abandon all sense of self-preservation and common sense, at least they wouldn't also fail out of school. Deciding this was a fair trade and well worth it in order to keep Remus off their backs, all three boys readily agreed to the compromise. Remus was always irritable during the full moon and if completing his Arithmancy homework kept the werewolf at bay, then Sirius would gladly do it.

Well, thought Sirius unhappily as he picked up his quill, gladly was a strong word.

"Hey James, have you got your notes on the Third Giant Rebellion of 1876? Mine are a bit incomplete," asked Peter. Sirius stole a glance at Peter from the corner of his eyes and fought the urge to shake his head. Peter's notes weren't incomplete, they were utter rubbish.

"Sorry, mate. All my history of magic stuff is upstairs," said James.

Sirius smirked and tried to put all of his focus back onto his essay on the common uses of the calming draught and possible side effects of an improperly brewed potion. The work wasn't hard and Sirius knew that Professor Slughorn would likely give him good marks in a bid to get him to join the Slug Club. It was a waste of Slughorn's efforts, in Sirius' opinion, but he wasn't going to say no to good marks when they so willingly presented themselves.

The sound of familiar voices drifted past and Sirius lifted his head just in time to see Marlene McKinnon, Alice Millner, and Lydia Beckett enter the library. All three girls, dressed in varying states of weekend casual dress, were chatting happily about something as they sat at a nearby table. Moments later, Emmeline Vance strayed into the library with sixth year Gryffindor Mary Macdonald in tow. It was a merry gathering of girls and provided Sirius enough distraction from his homework. And what a lovely distraction they were, each girl possessing some distinctive feature that appealed to Sirius from Mary Macdonald's peaches and cream skin to Alice Millner's stark blue eyes to even Marlene McKinnon's impossibly thick mane of rich chocolate brown hair.

"Padfoot, would you stop ogling and get back to work? I swear, sometimes you're worse than Wormtail," lamented James.

Scowling, Sirius tipped his chair back onto his back legs, fixing James with a particularly unpleasant look. "I was not ogling," he snapped.

"Yes, you were," said James, looking not in the least bit harried, unlike Remus who kept shooting daggers at his friends. Through his glasses, James surveyed the quintet. "They're quite pretty," he noted. "Not Lily Evans pretty, but really, who is?"

"Oh sod off with yet another one of your Lily soliloquies. It's bad enough you ask her out every available chance you get," said Remus shortly. It took every ounce of Sirius' considerable willpower to keep from laughing out loud. He knew it was wrong and rather mean-spirited, but sometimes he couldn't help but enjoy Remus' pre-full moon bad moods.

"Yeah," said Sirius in a teasing, but supportive voice and winking heartily at Remus who threw his hands up in the air as if to say he was completely done with all of them. "Besides, as lovely as Lily is, she's not the be all end all of girls."

"Says you," said James, clearly uninterested in any opinion that Sirius had to offer on the subject. James had made his mind up early on that nobody but Lily Evans would do. He'd turned down date after date in the pursuit of the redhead, entirely undeterred by the fact that Lily wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. For the most part, Sirius found his attempts amusing, but that good will dried up the instant James went around comparing Lily to every other girl in the known universe.

Lily was beautiful, though Sirius had never been much for red heads. Besides, he thought, as he watched Emmeline Vance and Lydia Beckett bend their heads together in deep conversation, there were other pretty girls out there. Lydia pushed her long, curly ponytail over her shoulder. Ribbons of champagne curls stuck to her green sweater and she smiled at something the beautiful Emmeline Vance said. Absently, Sirius wondered if Lydia's smile had always been so bright and if so, why he hadn't noticed.

"Yes, says me," said Sirius smugly. "There are a lot of great girls at Hogwarts." Though Sirius got the distinct impression that the majority of those great girls were already dating someone or wanted absolutely nothing to do with his friends and their hijinks.

James crossed his arms over his chest, giving Sirius the kind of superior look he would have loved to smack off his best friend's face. "Oh really," he drawled. "So, if there are so many great girls at Hogwarts then why haven't you dated a single one of them since the start of this year?"

Sirius shrugged, shaking his hair out of his eyes. There were a myriad of reasons as to why Sirius hadn't dated for most of the year, but he didn't particularly feel like sharing them in the library. He wasn't about to go talking about his deep-seated personal reasons or the fact that most of the girls who asked him out did so out of some misguided fantasy as to the person he really was. Sirius wasn't dense, he knew how handsome he was and he knew the effect he had on girls. While he certainly didn't mind using his good looks to his advantage on occasion, he wasn't interested in being any girl's trophy, a prize for her to show off and say to the world _look at me, I've bagged Sirius Black_!

"We've been a bit busy this year," said Sirius offhandedly. "What with our extracurricular activities, extra classwork, and preventing you from making a total arse of yourself in front of Lily."

James arched an eyebrow, not believing a single word of Sirius' excuse but thankfully he let it go. Two tables over, Marlene and Lydia were exchanging notes. Sirius wondered why girls like Alice, Emmeline, Lydia, and Marlene had never once jumped on his fan club bandwagon. Suddenly irritated and in need of a new task, Sirius snapped his potions book shut. The sight of Lydia and Marlene trading notes had given him a fresh idea.

"Enough of this potions rubbish," he said. "How about we start on Charms? I've never seen Flitwick give so much homework. Luckily for us, I've procured a secret weapon."

Remus' jaw dropped. "You didn't," he said sharply. "Don't tell me you brought those copies into the library while Lydia is sitting two bloody tables away!" He hissed, fire practically leaping from his eyes.

Sirius' lazy grin stretched a fraction wider. "Ye of little faith," he chided. Reaching into his bag he produced four notebooks, each one bearing a different cover and looking well-used and entirely innocent. Remus smacked his palm over his face and groaned into his hand. "You didn't think I'd copy the cover too, did you? C'mon, Moony, give me a little credit here."

James and Peter instantly perked up, curiosity flashing on their faces. "What is it, Padfoot?" Peter asked excitedly, holding his chubby hand out for one of the notebooks. With all the air of an overly gracious benefactor, Sirius handed one of the notebooks over to Peter, the other to James and tossed the last to Remus who cast it a filthy look.

"I can't believe you actually did this," said Remus unhappily.

"Did what?" James asked, head snapping back and forth between his friends.

"See, I think that's the full-moon talking. We'll revisit this subject in a few days and you'll be whistling a different tune," said Sirius in a sing-song voice.

"For God's sake, Padfoot, what did you do?" Asked James, exasperated.

"Well it's a bit of a story, but the short version is that I managed to get a hold of Lydia Beckett's charms notebook and Moony informed me that she's the best in our year. So I figured that it might be beneficial, no – essential – to our survival on the OWL if she shared her genius with us. After all, it's just unfair for her to hoard all that talent to herself."

James and Peter both looked down at their grubby notebooks and then back up at Sirius. A look of extreme gratitude came across Peter's round face, as though Christmas had come around a second time. James, in the meantime just grinned. "Padfoot, I salute your initiative. Although I can't believe you were in possession of her notebook and didn't tell me. The things we could have done to it," he said in a dreamy voice.

Sirius's thoughts drifted back to his conversation with Lydia earlier in the week. "Exactly the reason I didn't tell you," he said. "I figured it was bad enough she'd been humiliated in front of the whole classroom without you hexing her notes. Besides, getting all of her notes is a better tradeoff in the end."

"I suppose you're right," said James and he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"I'd like to say on the record that I am extremely against this," said Remus, though he wasn't pushing away the notebook.

"And I'd like to go on record and say that Sirius is a lifesaver," said Peter.

"Well, then, let's see what Miss Beckett has to say about Charms," said Sirius and with a flourish, opened the notebook.

Just as in the original, Lydia's handwriting was neat, miniscule, and incredibly thorough. It was clear that she went back through her notes after class, adding information, organizing her thoughts and putting together all sorts of useful little study charts. Sirius, James, and Peter all started digging into the material while Remus stared dubiously at the notebook. "Christ, Moony, would you get off your high horse? You're the one who gave me the idea in the first place," snapped Sirius when he caught Remus' hesitant glance out of the corner of his eye.

But Remus didn't answer because at that moment Sirius noticed the tendrils of vivid emerald smoke that began issuing from within the notebook, escaping from in between the pages. "What the?" James asked, tilting his head to get a better look at his own smoking notebook.

Remus was no longer staring at the notebooks, but rather two tables down where Lydia and her friends were watching them curiously. Slowly, surely, recognition dawned on Lydia's face and Sirius stared back down at his notebook. "She's the best in our year at charms," said Remus slowly.

"You don't think," James started to say but his words were cut off by Peter's indignant shout.

Even Sirius jumped back as his copied notebook burst into brilliant pink flames. Thick plumes of perfumed smoke continued to issue from the notebook until the flames died away and with a loud 'bang!' the notebook exploded into a shower of multi-colored, shining foil confetti. Sirius watched, slack jawed as the confetti pieces floated down onto the tabletop, each piece spelling out the word 'cheater' with a cheery exclamation point at the end. Beneath the confetti pile, Sirius noted with extreme dismay that the potions essay, over which he'd placed the notebook, was now nothing more than ash.

Two tables over, all five girls burst into raucous laughter along with all of the other occupied tables nearby. All four boys stared at each other, stunned while the smoke continued to clear. "Yes," said Remus slowly, shaking the confetti from his hair. "I think that Lydia Beckett is conniving enough to spell her own notebooks so nobody can cheat off her.

"Why, yes, she is," said a sunny voice above them.

Somewhere in all the chaos, Lydia had gotten up from her table and ambled over. She grabbed the nearest chair and sat down at their table, looking thoroughly pleased with herself. "So," she said, addressing Sirius directly. "Despite your _nice guy_ assurances that you didn't mess with my Charms notebook, you thought it was okay to make copies?"

"Ah, yes, well," said Sirius haltingly. James was struggling not to smirk and Sirius had to fight him off when he tried to pick pieces of confetti stuck in Sirius' hair. Back at Lydia's table, Marlene and Emmeline were wiping tears of mirth from their eyes. Sirius swatted at James' hand again, wondering the whole time why Madam Pince hadn't showed up. How was it that that blasted librarian caught him every time he tried to cause a ruckus in the library but was nowhere to be seen when he was the victim? Still, he was Sirius Black for crying out loud and so he decided to try and play it cool. "At the time I figured it couldn't hurt anyone," he suggested jauntily.

Lydia arched an eyebrow and her eyes reminded him of hard steel. "Charms is the one subject that I excel at. Did you really think I was thick enough to not protect my notes? I spend hours on all of that. And more to the point, what makes you think it's okay to take advantage of someone else's hard work?"

"You're chastising me?" Sirius spluttered. "You nearly burned our bloody eyebrows off with your little charm; which, if you ask me is a bit of an overkill really."

"Well fortunately for me, I didn't ask you," snapped Lydia. Then, suddenly her harsh exterior cracked and she covered her mouth with her hand to stifle her laughter. "Though it would have been a bonus to see all of you with no eyebrows."

Sirius didn't find this funny in the slightest. Next to him, James had managed to collect a handful of the confetti, staring at it thoughtfully before he turned his attention to Lydia. "How'd you do it?" He enquired.

Lydia stopped laughing long enough to sweep her long ponytail back over her shoulder and Sirius wondered if he could curse her in the middle of the library and not come off looking like the bad guy. Her eyes sparkled with humor; she was clearly pleased with herself. "How did I do what?" She asked, not immediately following James' question.

"Charm the notebooks! That's was a pretty complex spell, or I suppose it was probably a set of spells," he mused, scratching his chin. "Mind if I keep Remus' copy to figure out your handiwork? It's quite impressive."

A groan rose up in Sirius' throat and even Peter gave a slight shake of his head. Flattery was the signature James Potter tactic when he wanted to get anything. And although it usually worked, James was also notoriously bad at reading his audience. Remus covered his face with one of his hands, muttering something that sounded an awful lot like "you shameless cad."

Lydia's lips still quivered over her laugh and she shook her head, holding her hand out for the notebook. "Nope," she said, popping the 'p.' "And even if I were to let you keep the notebook, you'd never figure it out."

With a casual flick of his wrist, James tossed the confetti on the table. He picked up the notebook and handed it out to Lydia. She grasped it, but he refused to let go, and a miniature game of tug of war ensued. Lydia's smile dropped, only to be replaced by a glare that would make a better man hesitate. James relented, at Remus' urging, releasing the notebook. "You know we are housemates," mused James with what he clearly thought was his best winning smile. Sirius didn't have the time or the heart to tell his friend the attempt wouldn't work. Plus, thought Sirius with some small joy, he'd already been on the sharp end of Lydia's verbal knife, it was someone else's turn. "What kind of housemate would you be if you didn't give me some helpful advice?"

Lydia pressed the notebook to her chest, shifting her weight. With a lazy turn of her wrist, she motioned to their surroundings. "Alright, Potter, here's my advice. See the place we're in now? It's called the library. And it's full of these things called books, maybe you've heard of them? If you want to figure out the sequence of charms I used, then my advice is to do your own research, and not rip off the hard work of others," she said waving the notebook at them before she turned to walk away.

"Always a pleasure, Beckett!" Sirius called, half-wishing she'd stayed longer just for the fun of it.

Lydia paused and looked over her shoulder, giving him a wicked grin. Sirius couldn't help but grin back at her, wondering how he'd gone so long without noticing her sense of humor, as sharp as Marlene's and as smart as his. He watched her rejoin her friends who all gave her high-fives and congratulations. It wasn't until James resumed his annoying game of picking the confetti pieces out of his hair that Sirius turned back to his friends.

"Stop it, Prongs!" Sirius snapped, smacking James' hand. His friend only shook his still confetti covered head at Sirius, laughing the whole time.

X X X

Lydia's friends were still congratulating her over the exploding notebooks as the week wore on. Marlene had taken to reenacting poor Peter Pettigrew's shrill squeak much to the delight of her friends. For the days following the incident, Lydia kept looking over her shoulder, terrified that James Potter would try an exact his revenge. Yet, the revenge never came and Lydia was able to return to her usual routine without much fear of retribution; usually when James and Sirius decided to wreak havoc, they were swift about it.

As the days wore on, Lydia felt her satisfaction over the whole affair lessen, leaving more room for the other emotion eating at her. Guilt. It hung over her with all the unpleasantness of a constant storm cloud. Marlene had told Lydia to, quite simply, get over it while Emmeline and Alice assured Lydia that it hadn't been that bad. But none of their opinions and advice did anything to allay the constant gnawing every time she saw Lily Evans. Unfortunately for Lydia, Lily was an unavoidable part of her day, a near-constant presence morning, noon, and night.

Lydia could happily argue the politics of equal pay for women or the importance of civil and gender rights until she was blue in the face. Confrontation, on the other hand, was not Lydia's strong suit, especially when she'd picked a fight unprovoked. And she could not happily stew over the fact that she'd fought with Lily in a moment of emotional turmoil. Lydia tried to tell herself that she'd just been humiliated in front of her peers, she'd been embarrassed and angry. Surely Lily knew that, surely she would understand that the rude things Lydia said came from a place of anger and frustration. Still, no matter how many times Lydia tried to convince herself of these facts she was left feeling worse. No amount of rationalization could take back the very harsh judgment she'd doled out to Lily, a girl she barely knew.

As the week wore into Thursday afternoon, Lydia found herself staring at the back of Lily's head in potions class, where she sat three tables up. The Gryffindors had potions with Hufflepuff and Lydia was pleased to be paired with Emmeline to work on their calming draught.

"Merlin's beard Lyd!" Said Emmeline in a rushed voice pulling Lydia's hand back from the dandelion root she was supposed to be dicing. The edge of her sharp potion-making knife was precariously close to her fingers.

"Sorry," cried Lydia under her breath.

Emmeline gently pried the knife from Lydia's hand and slid the cutting board across the table. She then slid the mortar and pestle to Lydia, full of beetle's eyes. "Maybe you should pulverize these instead," said Emmeline.

Feeling flush from her moment of absentmindedness, Lydia gladly started to grind the pestle into the bowl. It was oddly satisfying, listening little pops of the tiny eyes as she ground the eyes into a fine powder. Still, Lydia found her eyes inadvertently drifting back to where Lily and Julie Featherby, the other Gryffindor fifth year girl were making their potion. Every so often, Professor Slughorn would move along the rows, pausing to correct students or to praise his favorites. At one point, he stopped by Lily's cauldron and loudly announced to the class that he'd never seen a more perfect royal purple hue to a mid-stage calming draught. Lily flushed pink with pleasure as did her partner who seldom got any glory in her classes.

"You know," drawled Emmeline. "If you keep staring at the back of Lily's head so hard it might burst into flames."

Lydia scowled. "Yeah, I know."

"Look, if it's such a big deal, why don't you just go apologize to her after class? Tell her that you were upset and out of line and all that. I'm sure she'll understand." It seemed that even Emmeline's patience had run out with Lydia over her continued brooding over the fight.

"I was really rude, Emme. I wouldn't blame Lily if she didn't want anything to do with me."

"Maybe, but you weren't wrong either and I bet Lily knows it."

Lydia measured out thirty grams of the powdered beetle eyes and scattered it over the top of their royal purple potion, stirring the brew six times counterclockwise before letting it rest. "It doesn't matter, I shouldn't have let my temper get the better of me."

"Well then, I say apologize. It can't hurt to try." Emmeline gathered the diced dandelion root on her knife and slid it into the cauldron. Both girls watched as their potion hissed slightly before swirling into a clear pale green. They slumped in relief, it looked exactly as it was supposed to.

"Well done, ladies, well done," said Professor Slughorn as he passed by, over to the table where James and Sirius were working together at the same table with Remus and Peter. At the exact moment he began to praise Sirius and James for their work, a squeal emitted two tables ahead. Suzanne and Marlene both tumbled backwards from their stools as their cauldron began smoking heavily before the cauldron shook and the bottom shot out, sloshing their acid green potion everywhere.

Emmeline groaned in time with Lydia. Marlene was notoriously awful at potions and her partner wasn't much better. "Not to worry, not to worry," said Slughorn as he hurried to help them clean up the mess. "Must have put the dandelion root in before the beetle eyes, yes, that'll be it," he kept muttering unhappily as he vanished the potion.

James, Sirius, and Peter were howling in laughter along with most of the rest of the classroom. Remus seemed on the edge of laughter, but kept drifting back to disapproval at the sight of James slumped against Sirius, wiping tears from beneath his glasses.

"Gits," muttered Emmeline as she added the final ingredient to their potion. The girls had just enough time to bottle their completed potion and clean up. The bell rang and Lydia hurriedly handed their potion in before she and Emmeline started to the door, determined to catch up with Lily.

Severus Snape had been waiting outside the classroom door for Lily. The two fell into step together, Lydia and Emmeline right behind them. "What's all the commotion about?" Severus asked as they started up the steps leading to the entrance hall.

"Oh, Marlene McKinnon and Suzanne Wiggins accidentally melted out the bottom of their cauldron," said Lily with a light laugh. "Their potion went everywhere."

Severus laughed sharply. "I'm not surprised, McKinnon couldn't brew a first year cure for boils if she tried," he said cruelly.

Lily coughed to smother her laughter. "This is the third cauldron she's melted this year," said Lily in a surprisingly disparaging voice. "I'm surprised Slughorn doesn't cordon her off in a special hazard area."

Lydia and Emmeline shared a surprised look. "Doubt it'd do any good, she'd probably just manage to blow the whole classroom up. Did Vance and Beckett come running to her rescue like last time?"

A furious prickling hit the pit of Lydia's stomach when she heard the way Severus said her name with such condescension. "No," said Lily sarcastically. "They were on the other side of the room, though I'm shocked they actually managed to get their potion right on the first go. Lydia's not much better than Marlene, I don't think."

Emmeline curled her hand around Lydia's wrist, a silent warning to keep calm. But Lydia didn't feel angry. "Oh please, of course not. Have you seen Beckett in transfiguration? I'll be amazed if she could transfigure a tea cup into a saucer. The OWL examiner will probably laugh her out of the room during the practical exam. She's so hopeless."

"I know," agreed Lily eagerly. "The other day I saw one of the papers McGonagall gave back to her, she'd gotten a D on it. If I got a D on any of my work I think I'd just as well quit altogether."

The pair of them dissolved into laughter and Lydia's stomach sank. Her poor performance in Transfiguration was no secret, but she was surprised to hear Lily Evans mock her so cruelly. "On second thought, maybe no apology," said Emmeline. "I mean, she's clearly not hurting over it."

Lydia nodded. "Let's just get up to dinner before you have to go to quidditch practice."

The two girls picked up their pace and Lydia watched as Emmeline purposefully brushed past Lily's shoulder. "Excuse me," she said politely.

As they passed, Lydia and Lily's eyes met. The latter's green eyes widened and her mouth fell open. Recognition that she'd been overheard filtered across her face and she turned slightly pale at the thought. Lydia thought of all the things she could say, of all the hurtful words that begged to cross her lips but she swallowed them. Instead she gave her a tiny smile. "See you around, Lily," she said and kept on walking with Emmeline.

X X X

January's frigid temperatures continued into February. Sometime during the first Tuesday night in February, a blizzard rolled over the castle, socking it with a foot and a half of snow. Professors Sprout was forced to cancel her lessons in order to care for her recent crop of mandrakes and the tropical plants in Greenhouse Four. The Gryffindors leapt at the opportunity for a free period and while Remus insisted on going to the library to finish his homework, Sirius, James, and Peter snuck down to the kitchens for hot chocolate.

James sat at the end of one of the long tables, a large book open in front of him and a stack of four more off to the side. He rotated a golden snitch in his fingers as he read, muttering to himself. The enormous leather-bound tome, entitled, _Complex Charms for the Crafty Caster_ was one of probably three dozen books he'd poured through in the weeks since the library incident with Lydia Beckett's exploding notebooks. James' hazel eyes scanned down a page detailing smoke-inducing charms, searching for a charm that would layer well with others.

Sirius cast a disparaging look towards James out of the corners of his eyes. "Prongs, will you just give it up, already?"

Peter looked up from where he'd been copying Sirius' Transfiguration homework. "Still nothing?" He asked, voice laced with sympathy.

"Not a damn thing," said James, annoyed. "I can't find anything in any of the major spell books in the charms section. I suppose I could try some books on household and entertaining charms," he mused, scratching his chin. "Confetti is a celebratory sort of thing, though I dunno if I could stand the shame being caught checking those books out."

Sirius and Peter both snorted in laughter at the thought of James Potter reading books on how to charm perfect buttercream frosting flowers or enchanting champagne bottles to pop their own corks and pour into crystal flutes. "As much as I'd love to see that," drawled Sirius as he plucked a chocolate pastry from an enormous silver tray on the table, "you've been at this for weeks now and gotten nowhere. It's becoming rather pathetic."

James glared at Sirius who began to pick the flaky pastry apart. Objectively, James knew he was being stupid. It was just a series of ridiculous charms and if he was being truly honest with himself, it didn't matter one way or another whether or not he could perform them. But, the problem wasn't really the charms. Rather, the problem lay in the way Lydia Beckett had all but challenged him to figure out her genius. Among his short list of faults, James knew he was overly competitive, and to have Lydia insinuate he wasn't smart enough to figure it out had been a low blow to his ego; he he wouldn't take sitting down.

"Look, it can't be that difficult," said James. "If Lydia can do it, then it should be a breeze for me."

"I don't know, mate," said Sirius breezily. "Maybe you should just admit she might be smarter than you."

Sirius smirked at James, only further provoking his irritation. Still, it was the first time James had ever heard Sirius speak highly of any of the girls that comprised the trio of Lydia, Emmeline, and Marlene. "You're being awfully nice about Lydia, considering that notebook damn near set your hair on fire."

James' suspicions only grew when the faintest flush came to Sirius' normally passive face. The boy rolled his eyes and began to search for a house elf to refresh his hot chocolate. Almost immediately a half dozen of them appeared bearing a steaming mug, peppermint, marshmallows and more pastries. "I don't care about Beckett in the slightest; but, I do appreciate cleverness when I see it."

"What I want to know is why we haven't gotten back at her yet," said Peter sullenly.

"She's not worth the trouble," said Sirius shortly.

"Besides, tangling with Lydia means messing with Marlene and I'd rather keep my distance from her, if that's alright with you. I don't imagine you'd want to get on Marlene's bad side again; not after the last time you made her angry."

This comment shut Peter up. Sirius barked in laughter. "I'd forgotten about that. I really thought she was going to murder you there for a second. Of course I don't necessarily blame her, I'd probably have cursed you into next week if I caught you trying to look up my skirt too."

Peter turned beet red and he spluttered indignantly for a few seconds. By the time he managed to blurt out that he hadn't been trying to look up her skirt, James had already moved onto his next book and Sirius was entertaining himself by charming the the pastries on the silver platters surrounding them to fly around in formation. The trio fell into silence once more and James started to peruse the index of _One Thousand and One Fundamental Charms_.

"Out of curiosity, is there another reason why you're so hell-bent on finding out how to do these charms?" Sirius asked, though he didn't sound particularly interested.

James kept his eyes trained on the book, unwilling to see his friends' exasperated expressions. "Thought I'd use them for a surprise when I ask Lily to go to Hogsmeade with me on Valentine's day."

Peter and Sirius both groaned in unison. "You're joking, mate," said Sirius.

"What're you going to do? Charm a card to blow up in her face? I doubt she'd go for that," said Peter. Sirius gestured to Peter in agreement.

"Of course nothing's going to blow up in her face! But I thought maybe a cake asking her out and then the candles would burst into confetti with her name on it."

Sirius pretended to gag.

"Sounds like a lot could go wrong," said Peter doubtfully.

James waved him off. "It's going to be perfect, girls love big romantic gestures."

Sirius and Peter cast dubious looks at each other. "Sure," said Peter slowly, unconvinced.

"Whatever you say, Prongs," said Sirius, hiding his smirk behind his hand.

In the distance, the bell rang, signaling the end of their free period. All three boys hurriedly gathered their things and left the kitchens, destined for Defense Against the Dark Arts. A crowd of students had already gathered outside of the classroom, including Lily who stood with Severus Snape. The hairs on the back of James' neck stood on end at the sight of Snape leaning close to Lily to look at some papers she held in her hands. He watched as Snape's eyes frequently strayed from the paper and up to Lily's lovely face. His hackles rose at the mere thought that Lily would return Snape's painfully obvious affections.

Forcing himself to focus on something else, he watched as Lydia, Marlene, and Suzanne all approached from the opposite end of the hall, laughing about something.

X X X

Suzanne Wiggins' obsession with romance novels was something of an amusement for Lydia and Marlene. Copies of the racy books stood in stacks on Suzanne's beside table. Oftentimes, when Marlene had had a touch too much to drink after a quidditch victory party she'd have the girls in her dorm in stitches as she did dramatic readings of the particularly scandalous bits. Unfailingly kind-hearted, if a bit ditzy, Suzanne happily let her friends borrow her books and occasionally Lydia found herself immersed in the silly storylines, providing a nice distraction from schoolwork.

Lydia held a copy of _The Secret Enchanter_ in her hand as she stood outside of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom with Suzanne and Marlene. The three girls were snickering about the ludicrous artwork on the cover of a scantily clad witch clinging to the torso of a wizard brandishing a longer-than-average wand, with the front of his robes torn open to reveal his chiseled chest.

"It's way better than the cover suggests," said Suzanne.

Lydia flipped the book over to re-read the description which included a secluded castle, ancient magic, a noble lady in distress and a handsome but tortured wizard with a dark past. The book had all the makings of a quick and entertaining read. Though, Lydia was certain she'd lose a handful of her IQ points after finishing the novel.

"I'm sure it is," said Lydia and she shoved the book in her school bag.

"Does your mother actually read these before she sends them on to you? My mum would have a heart attack if she knew I was reading stuff like that," said Marlene.

Suzanne shook her head. "Oh, I order them directly through _Witch Weekly_ , my mum doesn't know. She'd never let me out of my room again if she did!"

All around them, the Gryffindors and Slytherins stood separate from each other. Lydia, though she was fully recovered from Mulciber's unprovoked attack, still refused to look at any of the Slytherins. Instead she put her focus on listening to Marlene complain about Muggle Studies until Alice Millner appeared in her line of sight.

Immediately, Lydia knew something was very, very wrong. Alice was normally very well put together and was never without a smile on her round face. There was no hint of a smile to be seen and her cheeks were quite puffy. Her eyes were rimmed with red as though she'd been crying.

"Alice, what's wrong?" Marlene asked as soon as Alice came into earshot.

Alice, whose robes were in disarray, took a shuddering breath. Fresh tears welled up in her eyes. "Frank and I broke up," she said before a fresh wave of tears spilled onto her cheeks.

 **A/N – Confetti! Verbal sparring! Alice and Frank break up? Say it isn't so! More humor and melodrama coming your way next chapter when we pick up with Alice's broken heart and the title of this story will finally make sense!**

 **Let me know what you think? I really love feedback, hearing favorite parts, lines, questions, suggestions, whatever! Much love - Kappa**


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